1 week Ago By Tokunbo2
By Romanus Ugwu, AbujaHundreds of protesters, mostly Ijaws, halted activities at the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headquarters in Abuja on Thursday. They rallied in solidarity with the delineation of wards in Warri Federal Constituency, Delta State.The group, carrying placards with various messages, aimed to commend INEC and urge it to implement a Supreme Court judgement.
Their leaders hailed the ruling as an emancipation for Ijaw ethnic nationalities in Warri, praising INEC’s credible efforts. googletag.cmd.
push(function() { googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1718806029429-0'); }); During the rally, the Ijaws decried over 29 years of “ward allocation” injustices. Spokesman David Reje dismissed claims that stakeholders were not consulted before the delineation began.
Speaking to National Commissioners Abdullahi Zuru and Malam Mohammed Haruna, he said, “Why we have come here is to appreciate you, to thank you for the good work you have done since 2022, after the Supreme Court judgment. You never jettisoned the judgment.”He added, “You committed yourself to the rule of law and the principles of good governance and you really took it upon yourself to engage all the stakeholders of the nationalities of the Ijaws, the Itsekiris, and the Urhobos.
You formed a committee, you went down, you were engaging them differently, and they were heavily represented by their leaders and their traditional rulers and at the end of it, you made out time to go to the communities.” $(document).ready(function(){(adsbygoogle = window.
adsbygoogle || []).push({})}); Reje continued, “And by your fieldwork, you have been able to come out with a proposed document somehow, a proposed report. And we found out that some people are trying to become funny as if they were not involved in the whole process.
We were all involved in the whole process, in Warri, in Asaba, and in everything.”He expressed surprise at Itsekiri protests, saying, “Gone are the days when wards were allocated. Today, wards are given diligently through diligent ward delineation process, which is first of all carried out.
” He thanked INEC for its public, thorough work, noting, “Today, we have left our Egypt of political slavery to our promised land of political emancipation and political identity and dignity.”National Commissioner Abdullahi Zuru responded, “We want to thank you most sincerely for coming here as one of the major stakeholders in this discussion. Thank you for appreciating what the Commission has done so far.
”He assured them, “We are dedicated to doing what is right as far as democracy in Nigeria is concerned. And God willing, we will ensure that democracy at the end of the day is what decides everything that we do.”The post Protesters ground INEC over Ijaw, Urhobo constituency delineation appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.
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