WARRI — Prominent community leader and political stakeholder in Delta State, Chief Joseph Wuruyai, has cautioned the Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, against interfering in the affairs of Warri Federal Constituency, describing their recent comments on ward delineation as “misguided” and “completely out of context.”

Wuruyai’s reaction follows a statement issued by OPC urging the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to first implement certain court judgments related to Warri Federal Constituency before embarking on any fresh delineation of wards in the area.

Describing the OPC’s intervention as an attempt to distort the historical identity of the Ijaw people in Delta State, Wuruyai dismissed the group’s position as both “laughable” and “uninformed.”

In a statement, Wuruyai said: “The OPC’s demands on INEC are laughable and totally out of place. It amounts to rewriting our history. Aside from the fact that the OPC is interfering in issues that do not concern them, their claims reveal gross ignorance of the matter at hand.”

He questioned the basis of the OPC’s interest in Warri affairs, pointing out that the group lacks both local presence and understanding of the region’s political dynamics.

“Let’s even assume that OPC members consider themselves stakeholders — which they clearly are not — how many of them have visited the specific areas INEC assessed in its fieldwork? Are they suggesting that, without ever setting foot here, they know more than INEC, which physically verified the territory?” Wuruyai asked.

He drew a sharp analogy to drive home his point: “Imagine an Ijaw man from Delta publicly declaring that Lagos does not belong to the Yoruba and that the names of its cities were falsely altered to Yoruba names. How would the South-West react to such provocative statements?”

Wuruyai described the OPC’s posture as not only irresponsible but potentially inflammatory, warning that such interference could stoke ethnic tensions unnecessarily.

“My advice to the OPC — and to any other external group — is simple: do not reduce yourselves to subjects of ridicule by wading into matters that neither concern you nor lie within your sphere of understanding,” he cautioned.

While acknowledging the intellectual reputation of the Yoruba people, Wuruyai noted that the OPC’s utterances were uncharacteristic and not representative of the Southwest’s values.