The Truth Behind Ayiri Emami’s Misinformation On INEC’s Warri Federal Constituency Delineation__

By Esther David

In recent weeks, Chief Ayiri Emami has been on a media tour, accusing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of bias in its delineation of the Warri Federal Constituency. Among his most sensational claims is that INEC allocated wards and polling units “on the sea and in the forest” and even in parts of Delta Central and Ondo State. He has brandished a document containing geographical coordinates as “proof” of this alleged injustice.

But here’s the truth: the document Ayiri is parading has nothing to do with INEC’s electoral delineation.

The NUPRC Connection

The coordinates in Ayiri’s so-called “INEC document” actually come from the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC). This document lists gazetted host communities located within a 500-metre buffer zone as defined by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

These coordinates serve one purpose: identifying communities eligible for host community development funds from oil and gas operations. They have absolutely nothing to do with how INEC draws electoral wards or polling unit boundaries.

How INEC Actually Delineates Constituencies

The Electoral Act empowers INEC to delineate constituencies using:

Population data (including projections where necessary)

Voter registration figures

Community accessibility and geographical spread

Local consultations with stakeholders

INEC does not—and has never—used oil industry host community maps for elections. To suggest otherwise is either ignorance or deliberate political mischief.

A History of Resistance to Fair Representation

For years, Itsekiri political leaders, including those close to Ayiri, went from court to court to block INEC from implementing the Supreme Court’s order to re-delineate the Warri Federal Constituency. This delay ensured that Ijaws and Urhobos remained under-represented, while Itsekiri political dominance remained untouched.

Now that INEC has finally acted—balancing representation in line with demographic realities—those same politicians are crying foul.

The Dangerous Politics of Misinformation

Dragging an NUPRC petroleum host community map into an electoral boundary debate is a calculated move. It is designed to:

Confuse the public with technical data unrelated to elections.
Stoke ethnic sentiment by painting the Itsekiri as victims of a grand plot.
Distract from the fact that the new delineation ends a decades-long political monopoly.

The reality is simple: Warri Federal Constituency is multi-ethnic, and equitable representation is not genocide—it is democracy.

Conclusion

Chief Ayiri’s map is not an INEC document, and his claims about “wards in the sea” are a political smokescreen. The Nigerian public must demand truth, not propaganda. INEC’s work should be critiqued based on electoral law and factual evidence—not on oil industry buffer zone charts that have no bearing on elections.

History will remember this moment as one where some fought to protect fairness and inclusion, while others tried to cling to outdated dominance through misinformation.