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 Daily Independent Online.
* Tuesday, August 10, 2004.
Elue meets DSIEC over ward creation controversy
today
By Tunke-Aye Bisina
Reporter, Asaba
The
Acting Governor of Delta State, Chief Benjamin Elue, is to have a
closed-door meeting with the Chairman of the State Independent Electoral
Commission (DSIEC), Justice James Omo-Agege (rtd), and his commissioners,
to resolve the controversy generated by the recent creation of wards by the
commission.
Sources
told Daily Independent that the meeting at the instance of the acting
governor is billed for today and is aimed at finding a middle course on
the various controversies that have trailed the exercise.
"Elue
has already invited us (DSIEC) to meet with him on Tuesday this week. It
is going to be a closed-door affair on the way forward. You know that the
state government had asked us (DSIEC) to revisit the exercise, but
definitely it is not going to be all, where it is found that the case is
very bad, we will revisit it," a DSIEC source said.
The state
government had, following the furore that greeted the recent creation of
new wards, advised aggrieved persons to remain calm, promising to look
into their cases.
Elue had
said: “The attention of the State Security Council has been drawn to the
security implications of the ward delineation exercise carried out by
DSIEC. We wish to assure all the aggrieved persons that government is
concerned, and, therefore, we appeal to all to remain calm and peaceful
as their complaints are being looked into by DSIEC."
There has
been an avalanche of protests since DSIEC announced the creation of new
electoral wards in the various councils, most of whom accused the
commission of bias in the exercise.
But DSIEC
at the weekend stated that it had concluded the wards delineation
exercise. The Commission's Director of Public Affairs, Mr. Tony
Tebekaemi, in a statement, said "DSIEC has concluded the wards
delineation exercise which it embarked upon since 2002. However, details
of the exercise in respect of two local government areas, namely Warri
South-West and Warri North not released along with others will be
released shortly.
"In
Warri South West where 20 wards were created", the statement added,
"10 wards were created out of Ugborodo, Akpikpu, Mandagho, Orere,
Aja-Udaibo and Ogidigben existing wards, while in Warri North where 20
wards were created, 11 wards were created out of Ogheye, Gbokoda, Ebrohmi,
Egboro, Koko I and Koko II existing wards". It added that
"details of the newly created wards will be furnished to the
councils and displayed in the DSIEC offices in the areas".
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