State Creation: Itsekiri leaders protest exclusion of Warri state from senate public hearing

July 01, 2025

By Ayinde Adeleke

The Itsekiri Leaders of Thought (ILOT) have written to the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, expressing their disappointment and surprise at the non-inclusion of Warri State in the proposed public hearing scheduled for July 4-5, 2025, in Ikot Ekpene, Akwa-Ibom State.

The Senate Committee had called for memoranda and proposals for the review of the 1999 Constitution, and ILOT had submitted its proposal for the creation of Warri State out of Delta State. Despite this, Warri State was not included in the list of proposed states for the public hearing.

In their petition to the Senate Committee, ILOT stated that they had complied with all the requirements for submission of memoranda and were surprised that their proposal was not included.

They urged the Committee to correct this oversight and include Warri State as one of the proposed states in the South-South region.

“We refer to the above subject matter published in The Nation Newspaper of Tuesday June 24, 2025 at pages 28 & 29… To our surprise, our demand for Warri State to be carved out of Delta State was omitted,” the petition read.

“We complied with your request on Monday, the 2nd day of September, 2024, by submitting two (2) hard copies at your Secretariat… Perhaps, this is an omission on the part of the Secretariat. We are by this medium urging your committee, to correct this obvious oversight by including Warri State as one of the proposed states in the South-South region.”

ILOT is calling on the Senate Committee to include Warri State in the public hearing, citing the fact that they had met all the requirements for submission of memoranda.

The organization believes that the exclusion of Warri State is an oversight that needs to be corrected.