Ijaw Stakeholders Writes Open Letter To President Tinubu, INEC, NSA, International Communities Over The Delayed Implementation Of Warri Federal Constituency Delineation Report -

By Uche Alvin

OPEN LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT, THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC), THE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

From: Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: 17 January 2026

WHEN THE LAW IS FINISHED BUT JUSTICE IS HELD HOSTAGE

This letter does not arrive gently. It arrives burdened with truth and sharpened by exhaustion. What is happening in Warri Federal Constituency is not confusion, not complexity and not an administrative difficulty. It is a deliberate delay of justice after the law has spoken and the facts have been confirmed. It is not caution, it is constitutional defiance. It is not neutrality, it is the preservation of a fraudulent political order that has outlived its legality.

Let it be stated clearly to Nigeria and the international community: INEC’s ward delineation is not a plot. It is a long-overdue constitutional correction compelled by law and ordered by the Supreme Court. It is not an ethnic agenda, it is the product of judicial authority. It is not a declaration of conflict, it is the foundation of electoral peace, democratic balance and institutional credibility in Warri.

There is no longer any legal uncertainty in Warri Federal Constituency. What exists now is institutional hesitation masquerading as procedure. When an electoral body completes a constitutional assignment and then suppresses its outcome, it ceases to be an umpire and becomes a custodian of injustice.

The Supreme Court of Nigeria, exercising its final and binding authority, ordered the resumption and conclusion of ward delineation in Warri Federal Constituency in strict compliance with constitutional standards. That judgment was not advisory. It was not conditional. It was not open to negotiation, pressure or delay. A Supreme Court judgment does not weaken with time. It does not bow to politics. It demands obedience, full, final and immediate.

INEC resumed the court-ordered process. INEC conducted fieldwork. INEC visited communities. INEC verified population spread, settlement patterns and demographic realities. INEC completed the exercise and released its delineation report. Then, at the precise moment where courage was required, silence replaced duty.

That silence is the violation.

Partial obedience is not obedience. A judgment implemented halfway remains disobeyed. Delay after completion is not administrative caution, it is contempt disguised as procedure. The Constitution anticipated this kind of betrayal, which is why it did not say Supreme Court decisions may be enforced. It said they must be enforced. No clause grants INEC the power to suspend justice because its outcome unsettles entrenched privilege.

The Constitution is unambiguous. Sovereignty belongs to the people, not to institutions. Participation in governance must be ensured, not negotiated away. Discrimination on ethnic grounds is prohibited, not tolerated. Actions inconsistent with the Constitution are null and void, not preserved through silence.

The suppression of the final delineation report has no legal justification. What it protects is not peace, stability or national interest. What it protects is a broken arrangement that never reflected population truth, demographic spread, or constitutional fairness. For decades, a demographic minority enjoyed disproportionate political power through distorted ward structures that defied geography, logic and law. That artificial dominance produced a false sense of entitlement and an unjust political order. The current delineation corrects that imbalance. Correcting injustice is not betrayal, it is restoration.

History stands firmly against the falsehoods being shielded by delay. Early European records described riverine peoples occupying and controlling the waterways, fisheries and settlements of the Warri region long before later political arrangements emerged. Colonial intelligence reports identified Ijaw communities as original, autonomous, permanent settlements, not tenants or migrants. Colonial administrative correspondence expressly warned that recognition of traditional rulers for governance convenience did not determine proprietary or territorial rights. Township assessments listed Ijaw towns as taxable settlements, confirming permanent occupation. No crown created for administration conferred ownership over neighboring ancestral lands. A throne does not redraw ancestral maps.

Judicial history aligns with this record. Courts addressed specific parcels, leases and compensation, not wholesale sovereignty over Warri. Customary title has consistently rested on first settlement and continuous occupation. No judgment extinguished Ijaw indigeneity. No ruling granted blanket ownership to any single group.

INEC’s continued silence is therefore not neutral. It is electoral violence by delay. When representation is denied, democracy is frozen. When court orders are selectively obeyed, constitutional supremacy is weakened. When truth is suppressed, instability is incubated. The human cost is already visible in fear, tension, and deepening mistrust in a region that has consistently chosen peace over chaos.

The legal consequence is unavoidable. A constituency without a completed and published ward delineation lacks lawful foundation. Elections conducted under struck-out or incomplete ward structures are void from the outset. Mandates arising from them are illegitimate. Sovereignty belongs to the people, not to administrative hesitation.

We therefore demand, without equivocation, the immediate publication and full implementation of the final ward delineation report. We demand full obedience to the Supreme Court. We demand the suspension of all electoral activities in Warri Federal Constituency pending publication. We demand the restoration of constitutional order without further delay.

Let it be understood clearly: restraint is not weakness. Peace is not surrender. We seek resolution, not confrontation but we will not participate in our own marginalization. Institutions must choose between the Constitution and conspiracy, between law and convenience, between justice and silence.

History does not forget moments like this. It records who stood with the law and who hid behind delay. The Court has spoken. The facts have been gathered. The process has been completed. What remains is not deliberation but a choice.

INEC must publish the final ward delineation report.
Truth must be allowed to speak.
The map must reflect reality.

Until this is done, every electoral activity in Warri Federal Constituency remains illegitimate, and responsibility rests squarely on those who chose delay over duty.

SIGNED:

Chief Tiemopere Joshua ~ President

Chief Ebikeme T. Goodstime ~ Secretary

Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:

The National Security Adviser

The National Assembly

The Delta State Government

The Nigerian Bar Association

Civil Society Organizations

United Nations Office in Nigeria

African Union (AU)