Formal Petition On The Historic Distortion, Constitutional Defiance And The Illegal Withholding Of Warri Federal Constituency Delineation Report By INEC -

By Esther David

PETITIONERS:
Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency, Delta State, Nigeria

RESPONDENTS:
The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)
The Federal Government of Nigeria

SUBJECT:
Demand for Immediate Publication of the Final Ward Delineation Result, Rejection of Colonial Falsehoods, and Restoration of Constitutional Order in Warri

STATEMENT OF PAIN, ANGER AND PURPOSE

This Petition is written in rage disciplined by record and in pain sharpened by betrayal. What is unfolding in Warri is not confusion; it is deception. It is not delay; it is defiance. It is not neutrality; it is collaboration with historical falsehood. INEC’s continued refusal to publish the final ward delineation result, after verified fieldwork, population confirmation and binding judicial direction, amounts to an assault on truth, law and democratic existence. We state plainly: until the final delineation result is published, every electoral activity in Warri Federal Constituency is illegal, illegitimate and void.

HISTORICAL REALITY ESTABLISHED BEFORE COLONIAL RULE (1485–1898)

As early as 1485, Portuguese chronicler Duarte Pacheco Pereira (Esmeraldo de Situ Orbis) described river-dwelling peoples inhabiting and controlling the Escravos and adjoining waterways, living by fishing and navigation, independent of inland court systems. His account makes no claim of an inland monarchy owning the creeks, a description consistent with Ijaw riverine settlement.

Between 1894 and 1898, British consular reports from the Niger Coast Protectorate repeatedly referred to “Ijo towns of the creeks” as established settlements exercising control over riverine trade routes. These early records predate indirect rule and confirm in-situ occupation, not tenancy.

COLONIAL INTELLIGENCE AND ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS (1917–1933)

Colonial files did not invent Ijaw presence; they recorded it.
In CSO 26/Vol. 6/08549 (circa 1917–1921), Warri Province intelligence identified numerous Ijaw settlements as original riverine communities with political organization distinct from inland court-based systems. The file treats these communities as settled and autonomous, not migrant appendages.

In CO 554/120/5 (1928), Colonial Office correspondence drew a critical distinction that later distortions ignore: administrative recognition of chiefs for indirect rule “does not of itself determine proprietary rights.” This warning was explicit, recognition was for governance convenience, not proof of ancestral ownership.

The Warri Township Assessment Report (1928) listed Ijaw quarters and towns as permanent, taxable settlements. Under colonial law, taxation followed settlement, not temporary occupation. This directly contradicts later narratives that portray Ijaw communities as tenants.

By 1933, Colonial Office memoranda reaffirmed that native authority recognition was for ease of administration and not evidence of ancient sovereignty over all territories within a district. A crown created or amplified by indirect rule could not confiscate land long occupied by others.

THE CROWN QUESTION: A COLONIAL COSTUME CANNOT CONFISCATE ANCESTRAL LAND

The title popularly projected as conferring ownership over all Warri lands was formalized and amplified during indirect rule for administrative convenience, particularly in the early twentieth century. Colonial records never conferred blanket territorial ownership on that basis. Cultural leadership is not land title. A throne does not redraw ancestral maps. Administrative crowns cannot erase indigenous settlement.

JUDICIAL HISTORY: COURTS NEVER GRANTED BLANKET OWNERSHIP

Colonial and post-independence courts addressed specific parcels, leases and compensation, not wholesale sovereignty over Warri. Nigerian superior courts consistently hold that customary title rests on first settlement and continuous occupation. Where Ijaw communities proved these facts, their rights were recognized. No judgment extinguished Ijaw indigeneity.

SUPREME COURT AUTHORITY AND CONTEMPORARY DATES (2022–2024)

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, in the matter commonly referenced as Timinimi v. INEC (2022–2023), directed INEC to resume and conclude ward delineation in Warri Federal Constituency. INEC complied in part by conducting fieldwork during 2023–2024, visiting communities, verifying polling units, and collecting population data. Partial obedience is not obedience. A judgment implemented halfway is still disobeyed.

INEC’S DELAY: A SHIELD FOR FALSEHOOD

INEC has seen the truth it now withholds. It toured the creeks, inspected towns, verified numbers and documented realities. The subsequent retreat into silence is not procedural caution; it is political shielding. Time is being weaponized to protect a collapsing narrative. An electoral umpire that hides completed facts forfeits neutrality and becomes an accomplice.

LEGAL CONSEQUENCE: NO FINAL DELINEATION, NO VALID ELECTION

A constituency without a completed and published delineation lacks lawful foundation. Elections conducted on disputed, struck-out or incomplete ward structures are void. Mandates produced from them are illegitimate. Sovereignty belongs to the people, not to administrative delay.

RELIEFS SOUGHT

We demand immediate publication of the final ward delineation result as concluded from fieldwork; public affirmation of full compliance with Supreme Court authority; suspension of all electoral activities in Warri until publication; formal repudiation of colonial distortions used to deny Ijaw indigeneity; and restoration of constitutional order without further delay.

FINAL DECLARATION

Truth will not remain hostage. History will not be silenced. Law will not bend forever.

Publish the final delineation result now. End the distortion. Restore legality.
Until this is done, every electoral activity in Warri Federal Constituency remains illegitimate and responsibility will rest on those who chose delay over duty.

SIGNED:

Chief Tiemopere Joshua ~ President

Chief Ebikeme T. Godstime ~ Secretary

Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency
Delta State, Nigeria

Cc:
National Security Adviser

Leadership of the National Assembly

Chief Justice of Nigeria;

The Delta State Governor

United Nations

African Union

Economic Community of West African States

International Human Rights Bodies