Indigenes of Owu Kingdom in Abeokuta North Local Area of Ogun State, on Thursday, protested what they described as an “unfortunate imbalance” in the allocation of only three wards to the Owu Community despite its huge population and voters registration strength.

The LG comprises four principal communities – Oke-Ona, Gbagura, Owu and Oke-Ogun – with a total of 16 political wards.

But a group under the aegis of the ‘Concerned Apex Citizens of Owu Kingdom’, expressed worry that despite having a higher population and number of registered voters than Gbagura and Oke Ogun, the communities have more political wards.

Leaders of the group as well as indigenes of the kingdom gathered in front of the Olowu Palace in Abeokuta, to express their displeasure.

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They carried placards with various inscriptions, some of which read: “INEC Give us additional wards in Owu Community”, “Delineation for Owu is Long overdue”, “For administrative convenience, give Owu Kingdom more wards”, “To reduce election apathy, give us more wards,” “Only 3 wards not enough for Owu Community” among others.

Quoting the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) statistics for the 2023 general election, the Spokesman of the group, Pastor Sola Makinde, said Owu Community ranks second with 42,264 registered voters, after Oke-Ona with highest number of 48,554, while Gbagura and Oke-Ogun respectively have 40,850 and 33,469 registered voters.

He also disclosed that Oke-Ona has 96 polling units; Gbagura, 79 PUs; Owu, 78 PUs and Oke-Ogun with 85 PUs.

“It’s an abberation, abysmal and we reject it in totality,” Makinde said.

He said delineation is long overdue for the Owu Kingdom having been “deprived of fair and equitable electoral representation when considering factors like population, land size and registered voters strength.”

He noted that the “imbalance” had denied the community adequate representation and often led to voter apathy during an election.

Makinde called on the INEC exercise its conclusion powers on delineation by allocating three additional wards to Owu Community in order to correct the “imbalance.”

“By this noble request, we hereby unequivocally demand for three additional political and administrative wards, again considering the existence of our large population, mass land size and insufficient electoral poling units which are denying us ability perform reliable electoral responsibilities as earlier emphasized in this dossier,” he said.

“It is also our believe that ward delineation is critical to the country’s electoral process as it helps to prevent imbalances and ensures that citizens have equal representation at the Local Government level.”