Warri Wards Delineation: Rita Lori-Ogbebor petitions Tinubu over INEC’s process

A Niger Delta leader, Chief Rita Lori-Ogbebor, has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of giving away their family ancestral land to tenants and strangers in the guise of ward delineation exercise in Warri, saying those it engaged in the consultation have no affiliation to the land.

INEC had claimed that it engaged critical stakeholders during the consultations on the ward delineation.

But Chief Ogbebor, at a press conference held in her Lagos residence on Wednesday, dismissed the claim, saying INEC deliberately sidelined the ancestral owners of Warri land, the Ereku/Ogisi family, and engaged with tenants and strangers.

The Niger Delta woman leader showed documents, including maps, court proceedings and judgments affirming their family ownership of Warri, which she said belongs to the Ereku/Ogisi family of Odion town.

In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, Chief Ogbebor accused the INEC commissioner who led the exercise, Rhoda Gumus, an Ijaw leader, of bias.

The petition reads: “My name is Chief Rita Lori Ogbebor, the Igba of Warri kingdom. I am the great-granddaughter of Ogisi Odion, the founder of all that landmass involved in the recent INEC delineation exercise in Warri township, Warri-South Local Government.

“What is today known as Warri was initially known as Odion town long before the colonial era. Odion town, named after its founder, was the first man and town that pre-existed all the other supposed stakeholders. Odion came in 1474.” She showed a document of the survey plan of Odion town to buttress her claim.

She continues: “Following the recent INEC ward delineation exercise in the three Warris and, especially Warri-South LGA, our ancestral land was conspiratorially given away by INEC. However, we are not surprised because the exercise was led by an Ijaw leader, Prof. Rhoda Gumus, who heads the Regional Electoral Commission. They are our tenants.”

Chief Lori-Ogbebor quoted from court documents showing her family’s ownership of Warri land, and the position of the others as tenants.

The Igba of Warri kingdom, as she is also known, added while giving a remark at the press briefing. “I’m not talking politics, I’m talking about my father’s land that has been bastardised by the politicians. The politicians know nothing about the people’s land. All they talk about is APC, PDP. And of course, most of us will look at them and go away. But that is where the mistake has come because we’ve left our homes in the hands of people who don’t know.”

She added: “When they were talking about ward delineation and stakeholders, I called one politician and asked him what is the meaning of stakeholders. He said, ‘The people who are interested.’ I said, ‘no. It’s not the people who are interested.’ My father’s land! They divide the wards. They have no affiliations. They came from somewhere, they don’t care about us. They don’t care about our children. They settled the matter up there.”

Adding his voice to the issue, the secretary of the Ereku/Ogisi family Worldwide, Dr Peter Ereku Okorugbo-Goodnews, said the press briefing was called to correct the various fictitious claims arising from the delineation of the wards in Warri metropolis.

He said it was the erroneous information given to INEC that formed the basis of the wards delineation.

In his remark, one of Nigeria’s top comedians, Tony Mofe Ereku, known by his stage name Gandoki, who is also a member of the Ereku/Ogisi family, said the issue in contention is not about tribe, but family ownership of land.

He said, “People need to know the facts about Warri. Warri has to be unveiled so that people will know the rightful family of Warri.”