“Warri Is Our Ancestral Land” Says Ijaw Group, As They Charge INEC To Implement Delineation Report Without Further Delay -

By Uche Alvin

OPEN LETTER TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, INEC AND THE CONSCIENCE OF THE WORLD

RE: WARRI IS OUR ANCESTRAL LAND — INEC MUST END THIS INJUSTICE NOW

We, the Indigenous Ijaw People of Warri Federal Constituency, write to express the collective pain, anger and disappointment of generations. From Ogbe-Ijoh to Gbaramatu, Isaba to Diebiri and all our sacred settlements, our people have endured decades of systemic suppression, political manipulation and calculated attempts to erase us from the map of our own homeland.

This letter is not a plea, it is a declaration. A declaration that our patience is not weakness. Our silence has not meant surrender. And our civility must not be mistaken for powerlessness.

What INEC has done in the Warri ward delineation process was not a favour to the Ijaw people, it was a constitutional responsibility fulfilled through public consultation, community mapping, legal compliance, and verification. Yet today, this same process is now being held hostage by ethnic desperation and elite sabotage. A handful of people who fear the truth have turned to every corridor of influence to stop the wheel of justice from turning.

We have watched as the Itsekiri elite roam from kingdom to kingdom, from political office to political office, begging, bribing, lobbying, not because they seek justice but because they fear it. They have run to Yoruba monarchs, northern political godfathers and even the Benin Palace, pleading for backing to suppress a people whose only crime is demanding fairness.

They tried to provoke unrest in Warri, hoping to frame the Ijaw people as violent. They failed.

They launched a vicious campaign to discredit there whole process and INEC. They failed.

They attempted to manipulate the judiciary with a fake Supreme Court case — SC. 309 Omagbemi v. Diare, aired shamelessly on national TV. That too failed.

They brought protests to Ijaw territory at NPA Warri, desperate attempts to spark chaos where there is peace. Again, they failed.

They attempted to force recognition for fictitious villages like Bulou-Ama, which the government and the public rightly rejected.

They pushed for a judgment review to reverse what the court had already ruled. It was denied.

They dabbled in arms running, drug pushing, and community infiltration to destabilize the region. All were exposed and stopped.

They whispered lies to some Isoko and Urhobo leaders, hoping to create new alliances on false promises but our neighbours saw through them and turned them away.

What kind of people rent the land their king’s palace sits on, yet claim to own the entire region?

What kind of rulers build their dominance not on truth or population, but on documents forged in colonial offices and rewritten by ethnic lobbyists?

The Itsekiris are not the original people of Warri. They are settlers who were harboured by the Ijaws, welcomed out of kindness, and now try to twist hospitality into lordship. Their so-called historical roots are built on sand, on myths, not facts. Even their founder, Ginuwa, was a man expelled from Benin for sleeping with his father’s wife. That disgraceful origin cannot serve as a foundation for dominance.

Meanwhile, the Ijaw people have lived side-by-side with the Benin, the Urhobo, the Isoko and others, as neighbours, not conquerors.

Let the world understand, we are not tenants. We are not guests. We are the land. Our shrines, our graves, our blood, they are etched into the very soil of Warri.

INEC must not fall for the propaganda of a minority elite whose only interest is to perpetuate a system of false entitlement and unjust representation. What is left now is not consultation or investigation, it is the simple act of publishing the final result of the Warri ward delineation.

This delay is not administrative, it is betrayal.

We say with one voice: if the final delineation result is not published, there will be no election in Warri in 2027. We will not vote using a structure already nullified by the courts. We cannot continue to participate in a democracy that uses our votes but denies our existence.

This is no longer a local cry. It is a national alarm. It is a warning to all Nigerians and the international community that democracy in Nigeria is being traded for tribal blackmail.

To INEC: Do your duty. Stand firm. The world is watching. History will not forget.

To the Federal Government: Do not be complicit. You were elected to protect all Nigerians, not just the loudest tribe with the longest reach.

To all Nigerians: Ask yourselves, if truth can be suppressed in Warri, where else can it be buried?

To our people: We will not be erased. We will not be ruled by strangers. Our ancestors walk with us and our children will know we stood up and fought for our land.

The time has come. Let the truth be loud. Let justice be louder.

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