A group, Coalition for Urhobo/Ijaw Integrity and Justice (CUIIJ) has reiterated demand for the release of the final wards and units delineation report of Warri Federal Constituency by the Independent National Electoral Commission as ordered by the Supreme Court.
In a statement on Wednesday, the CUIIJ expressed concern that interested parties were “abusing their proximity to power to frustrate the release of the final delineation report.”
The statement was signed by CUIIJ President, Tega Marvelous, and Secretary, Godknows Ebimene.
Calling on the Federal Government to “resist external and internal interference and allow justice to take its rightful place,” they called on the international community and human rights bodies “to watch closely and call out ethnic oppression disguised as political lobbying.”
The group maintained that completing the delineation process was in the interest of “justice and equity” for all stakeholders.
“The final judgment of the Supreme Court on the long-awaited Warri Federal Constituency delineation was clear. It was decisive. It was just. Yet, what we are witnessing today is a coordinated, shameless and desperate attempt by the Itsekiri ethnic group to upend this justice through manipulation, political pressure and falsehood.
“They have run to international bodies, feeding them lies and fabrications of insecurity in the region, when in truth, it is they who continue to provoke conflict by refusing to accept peaceful outcomes,” parts of the statement read.
They restated that the Urhobo and Ijaw people are neither “strangers,” nor “squatters” in Warri, but owners of the land, adding that no “twisted propaganda or political muscle can rewrite that truth.
“For years, we have walked the path of peace. We have respected the courts. We have allowed legal processes to run their course, even while being provoked, harassed and marginalized. But this, this right here, this deliberate sabotage of a Supreme Court directive is the final insult to our patience.”
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