“If INEC Fails To Implement Delineation Report There Will Be No Election In Warri Federal Constituency”__

By Esther David

OPEN LETTER TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, INEC AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

RE: NO DELINEATION, NO ELECTION — WE ARE NOT STRANGERS ON OUR OWN LAND

We, the Indigenous Ijaw People of Warri Federal Constituency, from Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Isaba and Diebiri, write with a heavy heart and a burning truth that can no longer be silenced. Our patience has been tested, our identity mocked and our existence manipulated. What we face today is not just administrative delay, but a deliberate act of ethnic suppression and political sabotage.

For decades, we have sought justice the right way. We followed the law. We obeyed court rulings. We endured marginalization with discipline. We never asked for special treatment only fairness. INEC has done its job. The ward delineation process was carried out in accordance with the law. The consultations were held. The legal judgments were clear. The result is ready. And yet, till now, INEC has refused to publish the final report.

This delay is no longer administrative. It is betrayal.

The truth is known to all. The Itsekiri elite, in their desperate attempt to preserve a fraudulent political advantage, are moving from palace to palace, from kingdom to kingdom, lobbying traditional rulers, senior politicians and high-ranking officials to pressure INEC. They have enlisted voices from the Benin throne to Yoruba monarchs, all to halt a process that was never theirs to control.

What are they afraid of?

They are afraid of the truth, the truth that they came and met us. The truth that we gave them space. That we harboured them out of goodwill and today, they twist that history into ownership. They wear crowns on leased land. Their so-called palace stands on Urhobo soil, for which they still pay rent. How can anyone claim rulership from a rented throne?

This is a nation built on laws, not lies. INEC must not become a tool in the hands of ethnic manipulators. It must rise above influence and fulfill its constitutional duty. Silence is no longer neutrality, it is oppression. Delaying the publication of the delineation report is not caution, it is complicity.

We have been called settlers on our own land. We have been branded as tenants where our ancestors are buried. We have watched as colonial titles and court rulings based on deceit were used to deny us representation. Yet through it all, we stood for peace. We trusted the system.

But hear this clearly. If the delineation result is not published, there will be no election in Warri in 2027. We will not participate in a democracy that erases us. We will not vote under a structure that has been nullified by a competent court of jurisdiction. No amount of propaganda, no recycled lie, no foreign crown will replace our birthright.

Our land is not for sale. Our dignity is not negotiable. Our voice will not be drowned by colonial echoes or political influence.

We are the Ijaw people. We are not tenants. We are not strangers. We are the landlords of our ancestral soil.

Let INEC do its job.

Let the Nigerian government rise above tribal games.

Let the international community take note.

Because if truth is denied, if justice is delayed, if democracy is hijacked, then history will remember those who watched and said nothing.

We are not afraid. We are not weak. We are awake.

Signed,
Comr. Chief Miebi Thomp
President, Concerned Indigenous Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency