OPEN LETTER TO THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC)

INEC’s Silence Is a Crime Against Truth: The People of Warri Demand the Final Delineation Result Now

From: Concerned Elders of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: 21/9/ 2025

To:
The Chairman,
Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC),
Abuja, Nigeria.

Sir,

With heavy hearts and righteous anger, we, the Concerned Elders of Warri Federal Constituency, write to you at this critical hour when truth is being held hostage by silence. INEC’s continued refusal to publish the final ward delineation result for Warri Federal Constituency, as ordered by the Supreme Court is no longer a delay. It is an insult, a betrayal and a calculated crime against truth and democracy.

For months, your Commission has toyed with the patience of our people. What we are witnessing is not administrative inefficiency; it is a deliberate political collaboration designed to protect falsehood and deny the Ijaw and Urhobo people their constitutional and historical rights. Every day INEC remains silent, it deepens suspicion that the Commission has chosen to align itself with injustice rather than the Constitution it swore to uphold.

The Warri question is not new. It is rooted in history, law and conscience. Nearly seventy years ago, the High Court of Justice, Western Region, in the celebrated case Suit No. W/148/1956, Chief Izoukumo Olioki & Ors. (for themselves and on behalf of the people of Ogbe-Ijoh) vs. Erejuwa II (Olu of Warri), established the truth that can never be erased. The Ijaw chiefs of Ogbe-Ijoh boldly declared before the court that they were the original founders and owners of the land now called Warri. Their ancestor, Ewein, son of Ipoli of Ikeremor, established Ogbe-Ijoh long before any Itsekiri presence. His son, Okorotomu, later welcomed a wandering Benin prince and his followers who sought refuge across the river. In an act of kindness, Okorotomu gave them a small portion of land called Sei-Kiri, meaning “the dancing ground,” from which the word Itsekiri later evolved. History records this truth, the Itsekiri were guests, not landlords.

That same court record reveals how the British, in their ignorance, relocated the Warri Consulate from Ogbe-Ijoh to the Itsekiri settlement and carried the name “Warri” along. In that act of colonial confusion, the true owners of Warri were politically erased while strangers were mistaken for natives. The Ijaw chiefs told the court that they knew of no Olu, no overlord and no Itsekiri dominion over their land. The so-called “Olu of Warri” title was never indigenous; it was a colonial creation, not a cultural truth. These are not rumours, they are documented facts in the archives of Nigerian judicial history.

Today, INEC is walking the same shameful path of deception by refusing to publish the final delineation result. Your silence is not neutral, it is an act of complicity, an endorsement of a historical lie. The Supreme Court, in Timinimi v. INEC, has already spoken clearly. The judgment is binding. Section 287(1) of the Constitution compels you to obey it. Yet INEC pretends to be above the law, as if the Commission’s will overrides that of the Supreme Court and the Nigerian people.

Let it be known: our patience has limits. The peace of Warri cannot and will not be built on fraud and deceit. There shall be no Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) and no election on a structure already nullified by the Court. INEC cannot plant injustice and expect democracy to grow. Silence in the face of a Supreme Court judgment is rebellion and rebellion against truth invites consequences.

Warri belongs to the descendants of Ewein, the Ijaw founder whose generosity gave birth to the very name that is now being used to suppress his people. It is a moral abomination that those who benefited from his kindness are now aided by institutions of state to perpetuate lies against his lineage. INEC must not become part of this treachery.

We therefore demand, in the name of justice, truth and peace, that INEC immediately publish the final delineation result for Warri Federal Constituency as directed by the Supreme Court. Every further second of delay is an assault on democracy and an insult to the Nigerian judiciary. The world is watching. The people are waiting.

History will ever remember who stood for truth and who stood against it. INEC still has a chance to choose the side of justice or forever bear the shame of betrayal.

Respectfully,

Chief, Tiemopere Joshua
(President)

Chief, Ebikeke T. Goodstime

(Secretary)

Concerned Elders of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:
The President Federal Republic of Nigeria

The National Security Adviser (NSA)

The National Assembly of Nigeria

The Attorney General of the Federation

The Delta State Government