A community-based leader in Delta State, Chief Joseph Wuruyai, has reprimanded the Oodua People's Congress, OPC, on its recent call on the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to prioritise the implementation of prior court judgments related to the Warri Federal Constituency before conducting the fresh wards delineation exercise.

Chief Wuruyai, also known popularly as 'Jowurus', a former chairman of the defunct Egbema and Gbaramatu Communities Development Foundation, EGCDF, and Chairman of the Gbaramatu Host Communities Development Trust, GHCDT, in a statement released stated that the call of the OPC amounts to rewriting the history of the Ijaw people in Delta State.

Part of the statement reads, "The Oodua People's Congress demands on INEC is laughable and it is totally out of context. It is an attempt to rewrite our history. Asides the fact that the OPC is dabbling into issues that doesn't concern them, their outrageous demands on INEC shows their ignorance of the issue at stake.

"Let's assume the so-called OPC are stakeholders (which they are not), how many of their members have visited the areas that INEC physically visited to access and based their report on? Are they saying that they, that have never visited the area, are more informed than INEC that did?

"Let's assume the table is turned around. If an Ijaw man who lives in Delta State uttered a proclamation that Lagos State does not belong to the Yoruba people and that the names of the cities there were falsely changed to Yoruba names, how would the southwest people react?

"My advice to the OPC and any other foreign group or groups of people is that they should not stoop so low and make a fool of themselves, especially on issues that is none of their business or that they have no clue over," he added.

He charged the southwest people, particularly its leaders, to not allow a splinter group bring down their reputation especially on issues that does not concern them.

"The Yoruba people are perceived to be intellectuals. But by this awkward statement from the OPC they are proving to be shallow minded. However, I would differ because I don't want to believe that it is every Yoruba man that is in support of the action of the OPC.

"I therefore call on the leadership in the southwest to not allow a misled group of individuals to destroy its hard earned reputation in the name of freedom of speech in this social media age. They should call them to order," he charged.

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