“Stop The Delay, Deception And Publish The Delineation Report”_

By Ebiowei Gabriel

To: The Federal Government of Nigeria,
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
The Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA)
Date: 24/1/2026

From: Concerned Indigenous Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

STOP THE DELAY, STOP THE DECEPTION, PUBLISH THE FINAL WARD DELINEATION NOW

We write in anger, not because we enjoy noise but because silence has become a weapon against justice. The continued refusal of INEC to publish the final ward delineation result for Warri Federal Constituency, despite completing fieldwork and despite clear judicial authority, is no longer administrative delay, it is institutional injustice. Every day this result is withheld, democracy in Warri is suspended, the Constitution is mocked and the people are deliberately denied their political rights.

Let it be stated clearly and without fear: no final delineation result means no valid electoral process. Any Continuous Voter Registration, ward congress, election timetable or political activity conducted under the old, fraudulent structure is legally defective, morally bankrupt and politically illegitimate. A house built on false foundation cannot stand, no matter how beautiful the paint.

The truth that is being buried is simple: the current ward structure in Warri was never based on justice, population or geography. It was based on historical distortion and elite manipulation, especially by those who have built an entire identity around borrowed land and inherited falsehood.

History does not lie. Records do not lie. Colonial documents do not lie.

On March 16, 1948, Chief E.N. Begho, a leading Itsekiri figure, wrote formally to Chief Okumagba of Okere, acknowledging Urhobo ownership of the land on which Hussey College now stands. In that letter, he did not claim ancestral rights, he did not speak of Warri Kingdom, he begged for land and offered rent. The Urhobo landlord approved the request and rent was paid. This single document alone shatters the myth of Itsekiri ownership of Warri Township. Between the man who begged and the man who granted, history knows who the owner was.

The first major colonial urban road in Warri was not in Ode-Itsekiri, it was Robert Road in Ogbe-Ijoh, proving that the true urban roots of Warri lie with the Ijaw people. Infrastructure followed indigenous presence, not fabricated kingship. Even today, those who shout “landlord” cannot walk freely without state protection on lands they claim to own. A landlord who needs escort to stand on his own land is not a landlord, he is a guest living in denial.

Even the famous colonial middleman Dore Numa, celebrated in Itsekiri folklore, operated under Egbema authority. Historical agreements and rent records show that he and his lineage paid rent to Egbema people for lands they later pretended to own. How does a tenant become a landlord by shouting louder? How does rent payment turn into ancestral title? History does not work by noise; it works by evidence.

The British Intelligence Report of 1902 described the Jekri (Itsekiri) people as uninterested in building, more inclined to trading privileges and rent collection than real development. More than a century later, the pattern remains the same: loud claims, no land records, no infrastructure legacy, no population dominance, yet absolute political control through manipulation.

INEC has seen these facts. INEC’s field officers walked the communities. INEC recorded population realities. INEC mapped settlements. INEC knows the truth. Yet INEC is silent.

This silence is not neutral. It is collaboration with falsehood.

The Supreme Court in Timinimi v. INEC made it clear that ward delineation is a constitutional obligation, not a favour. Section 91 of the 1999 Constitution empowers INEC to carry out this duty, and Section 287 binds all authorities to obey court judgments. There is no legal excuse for delay. There is only political fear and ethnic pressure.

The Federal Government must understand this: you cannot preach national security while suppressing political justice. You cannot claim democratic credibility while denying people their lawful representation. You cannot maintain peace while feeding one group with lies and starving others of truth.

We therefore demand, with full moral and constitutional authority, that:

INEC immediately publishes the final ward delineation result for Warri Federal Constituency.
The NSA stops treating political injustice as a security strategy.
The Federal Government ceases to protect historical falsehood under the excuse of stability.

Peace built on injustice is not peace. It is a time bomb.

The truth about Warri is not hidden in slogans, it is written in colonial files, court judgments, land agreements, rent receipts, road records and population maps. No amount of royal titles can rewrite documents. No amount of political influence can erase history.

Delay is no longer administrative.
It is deliberate.
And it is criminal to democracy.

Publish the result.
Let the truth breathe.
Let justice stand.

Anything less is a declaration of war against constitutional order.

Signed:

Chief Tiemopere Joshua ~ President

Chief Ebikeme T. Goodstime ~ Secretary

Concerned Indigenous Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:

The National Assembly

Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN)

The Delta State Government

The Nigerian Bar Association