“Your Delay On Warri Ward Delineation Is A Direct Threat To Peace”_

By Uche Alvin

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

RE: THE WAR IN WAITING — WHY YOUR DELAY ON WARRI WARD DELINEATION IS A DIRECT THREAT TO PEACE

From: Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: July 29, 2025

INTRODUCTION

To the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
To the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,
To all democratic institutions, civil societies and global human rights monitors:

This is not an ordinary letter. It is not just another civic complaint.
It is a cry for justice, a final signal before the storm, a desperate voice from a people pushed to the edge of political erasure.

We, the Ijaw people of Warri Federal Constituency, write not as strangers to Nigeria’s democracy but as committed participants and defenders of peace who have endured unspeakable marginalization. We are the people of the land. We are the people of the creeks. We are the people whose ancestral bones rest beneath the oilfields that feed the economy of this nation yet whose political voice has been systematically denied.

For decades, we have borne the burden of distorted history and institutional injustice. We have watched as our ancestral lands were mapped under false narratives, our population undercounted, our communities overlooked in representation and our stake in Nigeria’s democracy trampled upon. We have seen power fall into the hands of those whose only qualification is a borrowed crown and media noise, while those with majority status, historical entitlement and judicial backing are reduced to political shadows.

The delineation of electoral wards is not just a bureaucratic exercise to us, it is a declaration of our existence. It is the recognition of our humanity. It is the difference between inclusion and extinction.

INEC, you came to us. You listened. You mapped. You documented. And after it all backed by a Supreme Court judgment, you chose to delay. You chose silence over courage. You chose appeasement over truth.

Let this be heard loud and clear: we will not accept this betrayal.
We will not allow a repeat of 1997. We will not be the silent majority again.
We are done with patience that leads to erasure.

This letter is our stand. It is our warning. It is our historical charge to Nigeria and the world. And what follows are not just words, they are the truth we are ready to defend with everything we have.

“DELINEATION OR DESTRUCTION: INEC’s DELAY IS A TICKING TIME BOMB IN WARRI”

This is not diplomacy. This is not decorum. This is not politics.
This is a warning, soaked in history, powered by truth and propelled by decades of injustice.

The Ijaw people of Warri Federal Constituency from Ogbe-Ijoh to Gbaramatu, from Diebiri to Isaba, Egbema and beyond, have waited long enough. We waited as citizens. We waited as patriots. We waited as believers in the Nigerian project. But today, our patience has hit its limits.

INEC, you came to our communities. You conducted field surveys. You inspected population clusters. You visited schools, health centers, palaces, oil facilities and electoral units. You heard our elders, chiefs, women and youth speak. You saw firsthand that the Ijaw people are not some invisible minority, we are the heart, the land and the people of Warri.

All ethnic groups were consulted, the Ijaws, the Itsekiris, the Urhobos. Every relevant stakeholder was present during your delineation exercise.

So why the delay?

What technical reason exists, after a Supreme Court judgment and comprehensive field work, for you to withhold the final delineation results?
Why is INEC now crawling, crippled by fear and compromise, when it should be sprinting to uphold democracy?

“WE WANT TO COURT, WE WON, NOW YOU DELAY JUSTICE? INEC, ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!”

We, the Ijaws, refused the gun. We chose the gavel.
We did not pick up arms. We picked up the Constitution.
We challenged the injustice through Suit No. SC/413/2021 – Timinimi v INEC, and the Supreme Court ruled in our favor.

That ruling was unambiguous. It compelled INEC to resume the suspended delineation process, complete it and publish the results. And for once, you obeyed. You resumed. You entered the field. You gathered data.

But midway through the process, you paused. You hesitated. You lost courage.

Why?

Because some Itsekiri elites desperate to preserve their undeserved overrepresentation and cried foul? Because they ran to the media with tears dripping in entitlement and mischief?

We ask you: Is INEC now ruled by truth or by tribal sentiment?

“BORROWED CROWN CAN NOT DECIDE OUR FATE: INEC MUST ANNOUNCE THE TRUTH NOW”

Let us be blunt: The Olu of Warri has no constitutional authority over INEC.

The Itsekiri monarchy is not sacred. It is not even indigenous. It is a colonial fabrication built on the ruins of deceit. The so-called “Ginuwa dynasty” began with a fugitive prince expelled from Benin, a wandering stranger, not a founder. Ode-Itsekiri was never a kingdom. It was a fishing settlement on borrowed land.

And the Ijaws? We were here centuries before Ginuwa’s arrival. The creeks, the rivers, the mangroves, these are our birthplaces, not our borders. We gave them land to settle. Today, they rewrite the story and claim ancestral rights over their landlord?

INEC, do not lend your credibility to such a dangerous myth.
We refuse to have our future dictated by a fake crown and a fraudulent history.

“INEC’s SILENCE IS DANGEROUS: THE GHOST OF THE 1997 CRISES STILL HAUNT US”

In 1997, Nigeria bled. Warri bled.
A dispute over local government headquarters and political representation triggered riots, killings, arson, mass displacement and ethnic polarization. That scar still bleeds in our collective memory.

What sparked the violence then? Manipulation. Lies. Political favoritism. Suppressed truth.

Now you walk that safe path. By delaying this delineation report, even after obeying the Supreme Court, even after completing fieldwork, you are sowing seeds of another war.

Do not provoke a crisis whose flame you will not be able to contain.
This is not a threat, it is a forecast. It is a red flag. It is a desperate cry for justice.

“NO WARDS, NO ELECTION: IJAW WILL NOT BE FOOLED TWICE”

Let it be known across Nigeria and the world:
If the final delineation report is not announced, there will be no elections in Ijaw territories.

No voter registration.
No INEC officials.
No election materials.
No electoral activities whatsoever.

You will not invade our land with injustice and expect cooperation. You will not pretend all is well while feeding the cancer of tribal oppression.

We will shut down every INEC activity in our domains, not violently, but decisively. We will withdraw our consent. We will reject your presence. Because the ballot loses its sanctity when it is soaked in betrayal.

“HISTORY WILL REMEMBER YOU, INEC — AS THE INSTITUTION THAT IGNATE ANOTHER WARRI CRISES”

Do not underestimate the memory of this generation.
Do not mistake our silence for surrender.
Do not assume that your betrayal will go unnoticed by posterity.

You stand today at the edge of legacy or infamy.
You can be remembered as the institution that upheld justice or as the one that danced on the graves of peace.

If Warri burns again, if lives are lost, if blood is shed, the Nigerian people and the international community must know that it was INEC’s cowardice and compromise that sparked the match.

FINAL CALL TO ACTION

INEC, the ball is in your court.
You have the facts. You have the law. You have the power.
What you lack now is courage and the country is watching.

We are not asking for favors.
We are not begging for mercy.
We are demanding the truth that is already written, the justice that has already been ruled and the voice that is already ours.

Publish the final delineation report now.
Or prepare for a resistance you will never forget.

Signed:

Chief Tiemopere Joshua (President)

Chief Ebikeke T. Goodstime
(Secretary)

Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc: