“End The Fraud, Obey The Law And Publish The Final Ward Delineation Result Now___

By Uche Alvin

OPEN LETTER TO THE INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION (INEC), ABUJA

Subject: End the Fraud, Obey the Law, Publish the Final Ward Delineation Result Now

From: Concerned Elders and Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: 20 January 2026

We write this open letter in grief sharpened by anger and patience exhausted by repeated insult. What is happening in Warri Federal Constituency has moved beyond delay into open provocation. The continued refusal of INEC to publish the final ward delineation result, after completing the exercise and verifying the facts, is an affront to democracy, a mockery of the Constitution and a deliberate attempt to protect a false narrative that has collapsed under its own weight.

Let the record be stated plainly. No final delineation, no valid electoral activity. Any election, registration or political exercise conducted in Warri Federal Constituency without the published and implemented final delineation is illegal, illegitimate and void. This is not rhetoric, it is the inevitable consequence of constitutional supremacy and judicial authority.

History does not support the claims now being shouted in the streets. There is nowhere in credible historical record where the Itsekiri existed in Warri before the Ijaw. The widely cited migration account itself admits that Ginuwa, the alleged progenitor and first Olu of the Itsekiri, first encountered the Ijaw and land and a wife were given to him to settle. That is not conquest. That is settlement by permission. A people who arrive and are settled by others do not become ancestral owners of the host’s land. History is clear and it is unforgiving to distortion.

Claims of superior population are therefore laughable. Population is not measured by noise or protest banners, it is measured by settlements, landmass, polling units and verified headcounts. The delineation fieldwork covered communities across Warri. The data were collected in the open. The maps were drawn in the presence of stakeholders. The conclusion is unavoidable: few communities, small landmass, limited population cannot be inflated into majority status by propaganda.

Colonial records have long exposed the myth. Early European chroniclers such as Duarte Pacheco Pereira described riverine peoples controlling the waterways and settlements of the region, living by fishing and navigation, independent of inland courts. John Barbot (1699) recorded Ijaw settlements throughout the Warri River zone well before later political consolidation. Colonial correspondence later warned that administrative recognition for indirect rule did not determine proprietary rights and township assessments listed Ijaw towns as permanent, taxable settlements. A title created for convenience did not convert tenancy into ownership. A crown did not redraw ancestral maps.

The law is equally settled. The Supreme Court ordered the resumption and conclusion of ward delineation in Warri Federal Constituency, grounding its decision in the Constitution’s demand that representation follow population reality and administrative convenience. Partial obedience is not obedience. Compliance that stops halfway remains defiance. Delay after completion is contempt wearing bureaucratic clothing.

False allegations against INEC officials who conducted the delineation are reckless and dishonest. The exercise was carried out by professionals, in the open, with stakeholders present, using verifiable criteria. To brand their work fraudulent because it exposes demographic truth is to confess fear of facts. All delineated communities are Delta State communities. All are within Warri. There is no invasion, no external takeover, no imaginary plot. There is only a lawful correction of a historic imbalance.

Stop the manipulation.
Stop the fraud.
Stop the fake talk.

INEC was not created to protect lies or amplify minority dominance. It exists to protect the vote, defend fairness and uphold the Constitution. Democracy is the rule of the majority under the shelter of law, not the rule of a minority sustained by silence. What is being defended by delay is not peace but a broken arrangement that has lost legal and moral legitimacy.

We therefore call on all responsible authorities and stakeholders to prevail on INEC to announce the final ward delineation result now. Not tomorrow. Not after consultations. Now. The Court has spoken. The facts are established. The work is finished. What remains is obedience.

History is watching. Nigeria is watching. The Niger Delta is awake.
Publish the final delineation. Restore legality. End the deceit.

Signed:

Chief, Tiemopere Joshua – President

Chief, Ebikeke T. Goodstime – Secretary

Concerned Elders and Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:
The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

The National Security Adviser

The National Assembly

The Attorney-General of the Federation

Civil Society Organizations

International Community