Four oil-producing Ijala communities with an estimated population of 300,000 demand a separate electoral ward or halt operations.
Four Itsekiri communities in Warri South, Delta State, threatened Sunday to shut the Warri Refinery Jetty unless INEC creates a separate Ijala Ward in its ongoing delineation exercise.
The threat, issued at a press conference in Ifiekporo on Sunday, June 21, marks the latest escalation in a constituency-wide dispute over political representation that has already disrupted oil output across the Niger Delta region.
The communities, Ifiekporo, Aja-Etan, Ikeren, and Utunwa, insisting that their demand for an Ijala Ward is “non-negotiable,” cited an estimated population of about 300,000 people and their status as hosts to major oil firms, tank farms, and petroleum infrastructure. Pa Michael Domino read the communities’ position to reporters assembled at Ifiekporo.
Domino told reporters the call for a separate ward rested on the area’s population growth, economic importance, and contribution to Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, arguing that continued inclusion under the existing Obodo/Omadino Ward amounts to political marginalization despite the area’s strategic relevance.
Youth representative Tuoyo Ebigbeyi of the Aja-Etan community left no room for ambiguity. “We will shut down Obodo Flow Station, we will shut down the Refinery Jetty, and no vessel will come there. Anything short of giving us the ward will not be accepted,” Ebigbeyi declared. No timeline for the threatened action was announced at Sunday’s briefing.
The demand adds a fresh dimension to the ongoing controversy surrounding INEC’s ward delineation exercise in the Warri Federal Constituency, which comprises Warri South, Warri North, and Warri South-West local government areas. That controversy has already cost the country dearly in lost barrels and investor confidence over the past fortnight.
Hundreds of protesters demanding implementation of a disputed ward delineation report had shut down 13 oil flow stations in Delta State earlier this month, threatening as much as 400,000 barrels of Nigeria’s daily crude production; the affected facilities are operated by Renaissance Africa Energy Company, Chevron Nigeria Limited, and Nestoil/Neconde.
At the heart of the dispute is a 2022 Supreme Court ruling that ordered a new ward delineation exercise in the constituency following concerns about inadequate representation. Acting on the apex court’s directive, INEC conducted the exercise and formally presented its final report to stakeholders in Asaba, Delta State, on May 20, 2026.
The report has continued to generate controversy among the Ijaw, Urhobo, and Itsekiri ethnic nationalities in the constituency, with Ijaw and Urhobo groups accusing some Itsekiri interests of lobbying contacts within the Presidency and the Office of the National Security Adviser to halt or delay its implementation.
INEC dismissed suggestions that the Presidency influenced its delayed implementation, with National Commissioner Mohammed Haruna telling reporters the commission completed the delineation exercise and awaits only the right conditions to proceed. “There is no influence from the presidency on Warri Ward delineation. Of course, we don’t receive instructions from the presidency,” Haruna stated.
While a recent presidential intervention resolved disputes in Warri North and Warri South-West through a power-sharing arrangement between Ijaw and Itsekiri groups, community leaders said Warri South appears to have been left out of the settlement, prompting fresh agitation for political representation.
Under the arrangement brokered following a June 11 meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the number of Ijaw electoral wards dropped from 14 to 11, while Itsekiri wards increased from four to nine in Warri South-West. The leaders warned they would resist any further alteration to the electoral boundaries approved by INEC and called on the commission to immediately commence implementation ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Documents seen by Westtrybe show that INEC National Commissioner Alhaji Abdulrazaq Tukur Yusuf, presenting on behalf of Chairman Prof. Joash Amupitan, established 20 registration areas and electoral wards across Warri North, Warri South, and Warri South-West local government areas in the May report.
Former Niger Delta militant leader and Chairman of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited, Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, had appealed for calm after women and youths from several communities occupied oil and gas facilities in the Escravos and Warri River areas to protest INEC’s handling of the delineation exercise.
To facilitate community participation in the 2027 general election, INEC fixed June 16 to 25, 2026, for the conduct of political party primaries in the restored constituencies, as gathered by Westtrybe. Whether Sunday’s new threat from the Ijala communities derails that schedule now rests squarely with INEC’s response to a demand its own ward delineation exercise, sources say, did not anticipate.
