Emami to Tinubu: Don’t succumb to blackmail, accuses INEC of flouting President’s intervention on delineation

Itsekiri leader, Chief Ayirimi Emami, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to succumb to blackmail, regarding the unending controversy surrounding delineation of units and wards in Warri Federal Constituency. Emami, who was irked by the latest upload of units and wards by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on its portal, as it relates to Warri South Local Government Area, stated that the Chairman of INEC, Professor Joash Ojo Amupitan, the Senate President, Godswill Obot Akpabio and some ethnic bigots, were trying to blackmail President Tinubu, to backtrack on his intervention regarding the controversial delineation of units and wards in Warri Federal Constituency, particularly as it affects Warri South Local Government Area.

The APC Chieftain and Ologbotsere of Warri Kingdom, asserted that President Tinubu, during a peace meeting he convened at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on June 11, 2026, emphatically stated that there was need to change the nomenclature of the three controversial wards proposed by INEC in the GRA, Pessu and Dore Market axis of Warri South Local Government Area.

Emami, in a statement made available to newsmen, Wednesday November 4, said President Tinubu, had in the meeting attended by Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, seven representatives each from Itsekiri, Ijaw and Urhobo ethnic Nationalities, charged Itsekiris, Ijaws and Urhobos in Warri Federal Constituency to live together in brotherhood and encouraged mutual respect.

President Tinubu, reportedly told the ethnic leaders in attendance, that he saw the units and wards delineation proposal for Warri South – West Local Government Area, as the major contention, hence he proposed 11/9 solution for Ijaws and Itsekiris in the local government area. The President, posited that a separate state constituency for Ijaws in Warri South – West and Warri North Local Government Areas, with Itsekiris having state constituencies of their own in the two local government areas, should address any fear of ethnic deprivation in terms of political representation in the State House of Assembly.