30/09/2025
IYC Accuses INEC Of Fueling Crisis, Disobeying Supreme Court Judgement On Warri Federal Constituency
By Ndu Samuel
The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has accused the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of fueling Crisis in Warri Federal Constituency by disobeying Supreme Court Judgement.
This was contained in a statement signed on behalf of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide by Amb (Dr) Binebai Yerin Princewill, Spokesman Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide, a copy of which was sent to The Liberator Newspapers.
The statement reads in full below:
Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide
Press Statement
30/9/2025
INEC Fueling Crisis In Warri Federal Constituency By Disobeying Supreme Court Judgement
The attention of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide has been drawn, once again, to the labyrinthine reports emanating from officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the commission itself, which seem to be shrouded in a veil of confusion. On one hand, it is reported that the commission has suspended the Warri Federal Constituency ward delineation exercise and transferred it to the office of the National Security Adviser.
On the other hand, INEC has issued another statement, a clarion call that seeks to misquote the Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Victoria Eta-Messi, and Sam Olumekun mni, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information & Voter Education Committee, on Monday, 29th September 2025, asserted that the commission has not suspended the delineation exercise.
As a council, we are consumed by profound concern, and our collective curiosity is piqued, for we wonder if there exists no well-defined hierarchy within the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that its officials would brazenly issue public statements with reckless abandon, only to retract them moments later. However, we must commend Sam Olumekun mni, National Commissioner and Chairman, Information & Voter Education Committee INEC, on his press statement stating that the Wards Delineation exercise in Warri Federal Constituency has not been suspended.
The question that now begs for an answer is: on what basis is INEC embarking on a continuous voter registration exercise in Warri Federal Constituency when the Supreme Court judgement has voided the previous wards and units in the Constituency? We are left to ponder whether INEC now possesses the audacity to flout the Supreme Court's judgement with impunity.
The Supreme Court, in its landmark judgement delivered on December 2, 2022, declared the current delineation in Warri Federal Constituency fraudulent, non-existent, and unrepresentative of the constituency's population. It directed INEC to carry out a comprehensive re-delineation. In response, INEC initiated consultations in early 2023, with fieldwork concluding in July 2024. From this, a draft report was presented to stakeholders at a public forum in Warri on April 4, 2025.
Since then, INEC, instead of scrutinizing its field report with a view to correcting grey areas, if any, has been vacillating on this matter, igniting unnecessary tension in Warri Federal Constituency. At this point, so long as INEC has not been able to implement its field report in Warri Federal Constituency, it does not have the locus standi to proceed with its continuous voter registration exercise in the constituency. INEC, as a commission, has no power to do so because the Supreme Court judgement has already declared the previous wards and units in the Constituency as non existent.
Let it be known that the delay tactics employed by INEC in implementing its draft report won't work, as it must not take the commission an eternity to put things together in Warri Federal Constituency. The Ijaw Youth Council must surely resist it with every fibre of its being.
INEC's intentional delay and extension of the continuous voter registration exercise to Warri Federal Constituency is nothing short of contempt of court and an affront to the Nigerian Judiciary in particular. If the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) led by Mahmood Yakubu cannot fix an issue with a legal backing in just one Federal Constituency in Nigeria, what then will be the hope of Nigerians putting their trust in a credible election in Nigeria by the same INEC?
While we have continued to preach peace and the unity of Nigeria, the Federal Government of Nigeria must be seen doing the right thing by not throwing this lovely and peaceful nation into another form of unrest on account of this.
Signed,
Amb. (Dr) Binebai Yerin Princewill
Spokesman
Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Worldwide
