The Historical Truth About Warri: Why The Final Ward Delineation Result Must Be Announced__

By Uche Alvin

OPEN MEMORANDUM TO THE PRESIDENT, INEC, NSA, AND THE GLOBAL COMMUNITY

RE: THE HISTORICAL TRUTH ABOUT WARRI — WHY THE FINAL WARD DELINEATION RESULT MUST BE ANNOUNCED

From: Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: July 26, 2025

INTRODUCTION:

The Warri question is not a debate, it is a wound. A wound inflicted by colonial conspiracy, widened by political cowardice and deepened by the silence of those who knew the truth but chose comfort over justice.

For centuries, the Ijaw people of Warri Federal Constituency have endured an unholy trilogy of betrayal, historical erasure, political marginalization and geographic theft. We watched as a fugitive Benin prince was gifted a corner of our land and later crowned with a title that was never his. We witnessed colonial officers redraw our maps to satisfy their merchants and monarchs. We saw palaces rise on fabricated titles and our ancestral lands renamed by strangers holding British papers.

We were here before the first Itsekiri sail touched the creeks. Before the Olu title existed. Before any British gunboat docked in the Bight of Benin. Our fishing nets, our shrines, our canoes and our blood marked these waters long before maps were printed in London.

And yet, in the 21st century, we are told we must beg for recognition?

No! That era is gone.

We are not guests. We are not tenants. We are the landlords of this land, the riverine bloodline that predates monarchy and mocks the myth of inherited overlordship.

We did not ask for this fight. But we will not shy from it.

We went to court. We presented history. We showed the maps. We laid bare the colonial records. And we won.

Now, they stall. They delay. They sponsor media blackmail. They issue veiled threats and incite youths to intimidate INEC.

But hear this clearly:

No title—no matter how golden—can override truth. No threat—no matter how loud—can bury justice.

This memorandum is not a whisper. It is a roar from the creeks, a call to conscience, a demand for restitution.

The world must know: the final delineation is not just a bureaucratic exercise, it is the final burial of colonial lies and the resurrection of ancestral justice.

Let the map speak. Let the truth rise. Let history be corrected.

THE TIME FOR DECEIT IS OVER

Enough of the silence. Enough of the games. Enough of watching our history manipulated and erased by palace propaganda and colonial leftovers.
The truth is not hidden. It is documented. And now, we speak it loud, clear and with no apologies.

For decades, we have tolerated systemic marginalization. While we endured injustice, others built fake empires on stolen names and buried truths.

But we rise now, not with noise but with facts.
We rise with our ancestors behind us, with evidence in our hands and with the law on our side.
The masquerade of Itsekiri supremacy has danced long enough. Let the music stop.

THE HISTORICAL RECORD IS CLEAR: IJAW WERE HERE FIRST

Pacheco Pereira (1485) – Portuguese Explorer

“The Benin river is inhabited by people called Ijos. fishermen and traders found in the swampy areas before the Warree River mouth.”
—Roteiro do Mar Roxo e da Costa da Mina

Fact: This was before Ginuwa ever arrived. We were there. The land is ours.

British Intelligence Report – Warri Province (1923)

“The Ijos are the dominant race in the swamps, occupying the whole stretch from Benin River to Forcados before the arrival of foreign political systems.”
—CSO 26/2, National Archives of Ibadan (NAI)

Fact: The British confirmed Ijaw indigeneity. Not a trace of Itsekiri dominance in the riverine zones.

Major A.R.L. Glover (Political Officer, 1943)

“The Itsekiris are historically a landless group. Their claim to overlordship in Warri creeks lacks demographic support.”

Fact: No land, no majority population, no basis for control.

Captain H.L. Gallwey (British Vice-Consul, 1893)

“The Olu derives his authority from Benin. He has no claim over the Ijo villages whose loyalty lies within their own tribal councils.”

Fact: The Olu’s title was foreign. The Ijaws never submitted to it.

1926 Warri Native Authority Map (Colonial Survey)
Observation: Clearly marked Ijaw communities—Okerenkoko, Oporoza, Isaba, Ogbe-Ijoh etc—outside the Itsekiri domain.

Ijaw Native Administration Records

Ogbe-Ijoh Native Court Gazetted (1932)

Gbaramatu Native Authority Police Post (1940s)

Fact: These colonial recognitions affirm independent Ijaw governance, not under Itsekiri control.

THE ODE-ITSEKIRI MYTH EXPOSED

There was no “Ode-Itsekiri Kingdom” before the 1800s. What existed was a temporary trade post given to a Benin fugitive, Ginuwa, by our forefathers.
He was not a founder. He was a refugee granted land and a wife by the Ijaws.

“The Olu was installed not by the people of the land, but by Benin authority with no local consent.”
—Western House of Assembly Records, 1952

Truth: The Olu of Warri is a colonial fraud. The rightful title is Olu of Itsekiri and it must return to that name.

WHY THE TRUTH WAS BURIED

In 1952, the British colluded with Itsekiri elites to rename the Olu’s title to “Olu of Warri” for administrative ease.

This was a deliberate political fraud to impose centralized rulership in a naturally decentralized Ijaw region. Itsekiris, as colonial middlemen, were rewarded with artificial status to control commerce and suppress native power.

OUR DEMANDS

INEC MUST PUBLISH THE FINAL DELINEATION REPORT
As ordered by the Supreme Court in Timimini vs INEC (SC/CV/1033/2023)—a legal victory for truth. Enough delay. Obey the judgment.

STOP CVR IN WARRI FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY
No more Continuous Voter Registration until the new delineation, based on actual population, not colonial fiction is implemented.

RENAME THE TITLE: “OLU OF ITSEKIRI” NOT “WARRI”
The current title is a historical fraud and a constitutional insult. Warri belongs to all, not to a borrowed crown.

DECLASSIFY ALL COLONIAL DOCUMENTS
Let the world see the buried truth: original maps, court records, census data, ward configurations from 1890–1960.

PROSECUTE SECURITY THREATS
Any group or palace issuing inciting statements or threats over a constitutional process must be held accountable. We will not bow to royal blackmail.

TO THE WORLD: WE ARE NOT VIOLENT. BUT WE ARE NOT WEAK.

We followed due process.
We went to court.
We won.
We demand implementation.

The Ijaw people have never been slaves to any crown.
We have never accepted subjugation and we will not start now.

We will not be erased.
We will not be intimidated.
We will not allow political cowardice to overrule constitutional justice.

THE FINAL WORD

We were here first.
The creeks, the rivers, the mangroves they speak our names.
The colonial maps record it.
The explorers wrote it.
The courts affirmed it.

The Olu’s throne is a borrowed artifact.
It will not rule over our lands, our people or our future.

History cannot be edited. The map must speak.

Signed:

Chief, Tiemopere Joshua
(President)

Chief, Ebikeme T. Godstime
(Secretary)

Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:

The Presidency

INEC Chairman

National Security Adviser

Director-General, DSS

Federal Ministry of Justice