A Warri-based legal practitioner and Egogo of Warri Kingdom, Chief Robinson Ariyo, has said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) lacks the constitutional power to delineate or re-delineate electoral wards.
The lawyer described the commission’s recent move to delineate Warri Federal Constituency as out of place.
A Supreme Court judgement delivered on December 2, 2022, had directed INEC to undertake the delineation of wards in Warri North, Warri South, and Warri South West Local Government Areas.
In compliance with the ruling, INEC began a series of consultations in February 2023, engaging with stakeholders across the affected areas up until July 2024.
The process included fieldwork in the communities and led to the development of a draft report.
The commission recently said no final decision has been made yet on the delineation of wards in Warri.
Giving credence to his assertion, Ariyo told journalists at the weekend that a court affidavit in public space deposed to by a principal officer of INEC, Onyema Chika, before a Federal High Court in Benin clearly puts to pay to the constitutional role of INEC as far as delineation is concerned.
He claimed that according to paragraphs 12 and 13, Chika was quoted to have deposed under oath, “I know as a fact that the 1st Defendant does not conduct elections using Electoral wards. It is the State Independent Electoral Commission that conducts the Electoral wards structure, who now has the responsibility to create and re-delineate Electoral wards.
“That I know as a fact that as at the time the judgement of this Honorable court was delivered on the 13th day of August 2003. The power to delineate and re-delineate Electoral wards had been taken away from the 1st Defendant virtue of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended) and domiciled with the State Independent Electoral Commission.
“In what amounts to a confession, Mr. Onyema Chika, a Principal Executive Officer of INEC, has in an affidavit deposed before the Commissioner for Oaths, Federal High Court Benin that INEC does not have the power to delineate and re-delineate Electoral Wards by virtue of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).”
Ariyo called on President Bola Tinubu to institute a panel of enquiry into the activities of INEC leading to the proposed delineation of wards in Warri Federal Constituency on April 4, 2025.
