RE: Appeal For Fairness, Equity And Justice Over The Continuous Marginalisation Of People's Democratic Party Members Of Urhobos of Warri in the Elective and Appointive Offices In Warri South Local Government Council

RE: Appeal For Fairness, Equity And Justice Over The Continuous Marginalisation Of People's Democratic Party Members Of Urhobos of Warri in the Elective and Appointive Offices In Warri South Local Government Council

The attention of the Warri South Itsekiri PDP Political Forum (WSIPPF) has been drawn to an open letter dated 2nd of October 2023 in the Pointer Newspaper to the Executive Governor of Delta State; His Excellency, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Francis Oborevwori, alleging gross marginalization of the Urhobos of Warri in the politics of Warri South. 

Ordinarily, we would not have bothered to join issues with the authors of that cocktail of lies but in a bid not to allow some ethnic jingoists hide under our party umbrella to disinform our Governor and the unsuspecting general public, we are constrained to respond as follows:

Your Excellency, for a better appreciation of the sinister intentions of the authors of the said publication and accordingly, properly situate them, an honest characterisation of these persons and their political antecedents in the course of our political development as a party since 1999 have become inevitable.

The leader of the group, Rev. David Otefia is from Warri South Ward 12 (Okumagba II), a ward the PDP has never won since 1999. 

The Deputy Leader, Chief Vincent Okudolor who is notorious for political prostitution and instability in our great party, the PDP is from Warri South Ward 7 (Okere), a Ward the PDP has also never won since 1999.

Chief Femi Okumagba is from Warri South Ward 11 (Okumagba I), a ward the PDP wins. However, Chief Okumagba always loses his unit to the opposition since 1999.

Your Excellency, It is a common knowledge that for every election year, their stock-in-trade is always to keep their physical bodies in the PDP and their souls in another political party of their ethnic interest. So that when they lose out, their political acrobatics will be activated to whip up sentiments in order to reap where they always do not sow. Since every election is localised and the results usually in the public domain, no one will be happy to fight to win his polling unit, ward and Constituency and allow those who happily give theirs away to come and superintend over what they did not contribute to its success. Or have they forgotten that it is no longer monkey dey work baboon dey chop in modern politics?

This drama will be more interesting if the authors of this publication can do another publication deploying same energy and zeal to publish the results of their various wards and polling units in the last 2023 general elections to enable the leadership of our great party see how retrogressively they had navigated the course of our great party for self-centered interests, which invariably has led to our loss of Warri South Constituency II -a full state Constituency to the opposition, APC. 

This aforementioned fact effectively negates another falsehood in their publication where it was claimed that they own Oteghele and Ukpokiti. The said settlements are in Omadino land in Ward 1 (Obodo/Omadino).

Your Excellency, In Warri South, prior to 1999, the political philosophy was winner-takes-all. The Itsekiris occupied the Chairmanship, Vice-Chairmanship, Leader of Legislative Arm and every other political position in the LGA. In fact, the Constituency II, they are surprisingly laying claim to was first occupied by Hon. Jackson Omatsola, an Itsekiri. This goes without saying that Constituency II does not belong to the Urhobos of Warri.

The Urhobos approached us for inclusion and  thanks to the magnanimity of our leaders, they have had a fair shot at every appointive or elective positions in Warri South but since the authors of the publication have by themselves arrogated 85% of the population of Warri South to the Urhobos of Warri, we have resolved to return to status quo. Let the Urhobos of Warri test the popularity and population they have been boasting of recently in the coming elections. It is unfair enough that they continue to enjoy our magnanimity while politically suffocating on our communities in Delta Central.

Below is how the 12 Wards faired in the last election:

Warri South 2023 Governorship Election Results:

Ward 1 (Obodo/Omadino)

PDP - 1235

APC - 542

LP    -  07

Ward 2 (Ode-Itsekiri)

PDP - 2701

APC - 1604

LP    - 42

Ward 3 (Ogunu/Ekurede Urhobo)

PDP - 761

APC - 658

LP    - 328

Ward 4 (Ugbuwangue/Ekurede Itsekiri)

PDP - 1639

APC - 897

LP    -  296

Ward 5 (G.R.A) 

PDP - 1013

APC - 869

LP    - 301

Ward 6 (Bowen)

PDP - 3083

APC - 779

LP    - 206

Ward 7 (Pessu)

PDP - 602

APC - 555

LP    - 125

Ward 8 (Okere)

PDP - 878

APC - 1187

LP    - 451

Ward 9 (Igbudu)

PDP - 922

APC - 1417

Ward 10 (Edjeba)

PDP - 505

APC - 552

LP    - 

Ward 11 (Okumagba I)

PDP - 1134

APC - 886

LP    - 410

Ward 12 (Okumagba II)

PDP - 882

APC - 1557

LP    -  07

Final Total:

PDP = 15,299

APC = 11,503

LP = 2,173

Your Excellency, from a careful analysis of the above result, it is very obvious that the bulk of the votes the PDP got from Warri South came from Itsekiri areas. PDP only won Chief Femi Okumagba Ward in all the Urhobo areas. This is because bulk of the votes with which our party won in that Okumagba I came from the Itsekiri dorminated areas. Besides Okumagba 11, the PDP has not won the Urhobo Areas in previous elections. Yet, they are the first to ask for the dividends of politics.

They stated in paragraph 4 of the publication that, “No matter how minuscule the population of a people appears, as long as their unique identity is recognized by the laws of the land,

they are entitled to a proportionate share of all that accrues to their Constituency or local government” 

Sir, their claim that “Warri South LGA is the only Council where the practice of fairness and acceptable mechanism of sharing of political offices are resisted and jettisoned” is a deliberate misrepresentation of fact. There are Urhobos in Patani and Burutu LGAs but they do not enjoy the political privileges and brotherliness they enjoy in Warri South.

The Itsekiri PDP leaders in Warri South have always been magnanimous to the Urhobo communities of Warri South since 1999. For instance, the Vice Chairman of Warri South LGA is Urhobo, the leader of the Legislative Arm is Urhobo, the member representing Warri South Constituency II in the Delta State House of Assembly is Urhobo and they are several committees set up by the Council chairman and headed by the Urhobos.

Their selective truism in Paragraph 4 above does not apply to other ethnic groups living  amongst them in Delta Central. For example, There are sizable Itsekiri communities in Uvwie, Udu, Ethiope West and East, Sapele and Okpe LGAs. The Itsekiris there have not aspired to the Vice Chairmanship seat of any of the aforementioned LGAs let alone become the leader of Legislative Arms of those LGAs. In fact, Itsekiri communities are not only starved of political divivends, they are also starved of social and basic amenities as there are many instances of oppression and marginalization against the Itsekiris in Delta Central -where the Urhobos of Warri migrated from. They are not aborigines of Warri South. Despite not always voting for the PDP, the Urhobos of Warri have held the Commissioner Slot of Warri South twice and also the LGA chairmanship of the Council. There is no LGA in Delta Central where the Itsekiris are shown this level of magnanimity.

Your Excellency, this unsubstantiated claim of our Urhobo neighbors of Warri South that they are more than the Itsekiris has always caused tension in the local government. 

On the contrary, it is the Itsekiris in the PDP who have sufffered the biggest political injustice in the history of our state.

Warri South Local Government has 10 legal electoral wards that were the basis upon which elections were conducted until recently, INEC, arbitrarily started using an illegal 12 wards even amidst relevant court judgements that are in favour of the 10 wards. Despite several protestations from the Itsekiris, INEC still uses this arbitrary 12 Wards structure.

Your Excellency, In the 10 legal ward structure recognized by relevant court judgements, the Itsekiri has over eighty percent of the wards namely; 1. Obodo 2. Ode-Itsekiri 3. Ubeji 4. Ekurede 5. Pessu 6. Esisi 7. Bowen 8. Okere and parts of Igbudu ward as against the non-Itsekiri ward, Avenue.  In the illegal twelve wards nullified by the said Appeal Court Judgement, the Obodo/Omadino and Ubeji wards - two separate wards in Itsekiri areas (like others) in the 10 wards were merged as one ward in the illegal 12 ward structure while the Avenue and Igbudu wards were multiplied to produce 6 wards. In this twelve wards, the over  eight Itsekiri-dominated wards above were compressed to 6 viz; 1. Obodo/Omadino/Ubeji 2. Ode-Itsekiri 3. Ugbuwangue/Ekurede Itsekiri 4. Okere 5. Pessu 6. GRA and the not up to two non-Itsekiri wards multiplied to produce 6 viz; 1. Okumagba I 2. Okumagba II 3. Igbudu 4. Edjeba 5. Ogunu/Ekurede Urhobo 6. Bowen.

Ukodo, we are a people of magnanimity and peace as we have demonstrated to our Urhobo neighbors over the years. However, we cannot continue to spite our faces to please our Oliver Twist neighbors. Since the Urhobos of Warri have claimed that they form 85% of the people of Warri metropolis, henceforth, let them subject themselves to democratic principles. Let the winner take all the appointments and political dividends. “He who wants to come to equity must come with clean hands”.

Signed:

1. Buwaghan Dere Jarikpe

2. Emma Nunu

3. Ogbe Eke 

4. Monoyo Edon

5. Izuagie A Ofoyeju 

6. Igben Sunny Bodor

7. Richard Pessu

8. Clement Ebiekutan