WARRI DELINEATION: Group Blasts INEC Over Delayed Implementation Of Warri Federal Constituency Delineation Report, Says Delay Threatening Peace, Security In Warri -

By Uche Alvin

OPEN LETTER

From: Concerned Elders of Warri Federal Constituency
12/2/2026

To: The Chairman and National Commissioners, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abuja

We write not in courtesy but in wounded patience. We write not because we enjoy protest but because your persistent silence has forced responsible elders to speak in tones they would rather reserve for moments of grave national danger.

You conducted the ward delineation exercise in Warri Federal Constituency under the authority of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. You deployed officials. You entered our communities. You counted, you mapped, you verified, you documented. You completed your fieldwork. The process was not hidden. It was not imaginary. It was real, structured and official. Yet today, the result of that exercise remains buried in your vaults as though truth itself has become contraband.

What are you afraid of?

An institution that completes its constitutional assignment but refuses to publish its outcome begins to look like a commission frightened by its own findings. This prolonged delay is no longer administrative. It is no longer procedural. It has become a moral crisis. The silence has grown too loud to ignore.

Warri has waited. We have exercised restraint. We have calmed youths who see delay as provocation. We have urged patience where anger could have erupted. We have chosen dialogue over disorder. But patience must not be mistaken for weakness. Silence from a constitutional body, especially in a matter that directly affects political representation and balance, sends a dangerous signal that law can be suspended when it becomes inconvenient.

An electoral commission must never appear selective in courage. When it is time to conduct elections, you move swiftly. When it is time to enforce guidelines, you are decisive. But when it is time to announce a completed delineation that may upset entrenched narratives, you retreat into unexplained quietness. That contrast is troubling. It weakens public trust. It breeds suspicion. It invites the very instability that responsible institutions are meant to prevent.

We refuse to believe that a body established to safeguard democracy would deliberately allow tension to ferment. Yet the longer this result is withheld, the more it appears that external pressures have found a home within an institution that should be insulated from influence. Democracy cannot survive where transparency becomes negotiable.

Your silence is not neutral. It has consequences. It encourages misinformation. It emboldens propaganda. It widens ethnic distrust. It undermines confidence in future electoral exercises. An umpire who reviews a match and refuses to announce the score compromises the integrity of the entire competition. Warri cannot remain suspended between expectation and uncertainty indefinitely.

We remind you that constitutional duty is not a favour to be dispensed at convenience. It is an obligation. The Supreme Court’s directive was not advisory. The delineation exercise was not ceremonial. It was a lawful process meant to correct structural imbalances and ensure fair representation. To complete it and then withhold its publication is to leave justice half-delivered.

History does not judge institutions by their press statements. It judges them by their actions at critical moments. This is such a moment. The credibility of INEC is not measured only during general elections, it is measured in how faithfully it executes every constitutional responsibility placed upon it. Warri Federal Constituency has become a test case of institutional resolve.

We ask you plainly, will INEC stand as a guardian of constitutional order or will it drift into the shadows of hesitation? Will it affirm that law prevails over pressure or will it allow delay to erode its moral authority?

We demand immediate publication of the final ward delineation result. We demand transparency. We demand clarity. Not because we seek conflict but because peace without justice is fragile and stability without fairness is temporary.

Warri deserves closure. Nigeria deserves institutional courage. Democracy deserves better than prolonged evasion.

Do not allow this chapter to record that when confronted with truth, the electoral commission chose silence.

Act now.

Signed:

Chief Tiemopere Joshua ~ President

Chief Ebikeke T. Goodstime ~ Secretary

Concerned Elders of Warri Federal Constituency (CEWFC)
For and on behalf of peace, truth and justice in the Niger Delta.

Cc:
The Federal Government of Nigeria

The National Security Adviser

The National Assembly of Nigeria

The Attorney-General of the Federation

The Delta State Government