IJAW YOUTH COUNCIL (IYC), WESTERN ZONE

The Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has raised an alarm of the Warri Area Command allegedly conniving with the Itsekiri ethnic nationality to oppress Ijaws in the city.

The alarm is sequel to the removal of banners bearing the image of HRM King Couple Oromoni, the Pere of Ogbe-Ijoh Warri Kingdom, by Itsekiri youths, in company of police officers from the command.

The development sparked protests by Ijaw youths, who marched to the Area Command demanding the retrieval of the banners and their immediate replacement.

Reacting to the incident, the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone, in a statement signed by the trio of Nicholas Tamaradenyefa Igarama – Chairman, Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo – Secretary, and Tare Magbei – Information Officer, accused the police of abetting to falsehood and threat to peace in Warri.

The Council fingered the Olu of Itsekiri – Ogiame Atuwatse III and the Warri South Council Chairman- Agbateyiniro Isaac Weyinmi, as masterminds of the condemnable act it described as a decoy to cause war.

“The attention of the Ijaw Youth Council has been drawn to an incident of police officers attached to the Warri Area Command conniving with the Itsekiri ethnic nationality to remove banners bearing the image of HRM Couple Oromoni, the revered king of Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom.

“This condemnable act is masterminded by one Wayemi Agas, the Warri South Council Chairman, who perpetrated the act on the others of the Itsekiri hierarchy.

“As peace-loving and law-abiding citizens, we view this action as a direct provocation and a calculated attempt to ignite ethnic tension in Warri. The removal of our king’s image is not only an insult to the Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom but also a violation of the fragile peace that stakeholders have struggled to sustain in the area.

“We call on the Delta State Government, security agencies, and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the Warri South Council Chairman and the Itsekiri leadership to desist from further acts capable of undermining peace.

“The Ogbe-Ijoh Kingdom has consistently maintained peaceful relations with its neighbors, despite repeated provocations. We will not be forced into conflict, but no one should mistake our commitment to peace as weakness. Any further attempt to desecrate the image or authority of our traditional ruler will be met with stiff resistance.

“We demand a public apology from those responsible and clear assurance from the Warri Area Command that such partiality and connivance will not be repeated.”

Signed

Comrade Nicholas Igarama – Chairman

Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, Esq. – Secretary

Comrade Tare Magbei
Information Officer

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From: Concern Ijaw Stakeholders, Warri Federal Constituency
Date: [16/8/2025]
To:
His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR President, Federal Republic of Nigeria.
The Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, Ph.D., NPM.
The Delta State Governor.

RE: THE UNJUST AND DELIBERATE REMOVAL OF THE KING OF OGBE-IJOH WARRI KINGDOM CORONATION BANNERS: A SERIOUS BREACH OF TRUST, CULTURAL RIGHTS AND PUBLIC ORDER

Your Excellency, Mr. Inspector-General,

We write with heavy concern but unshaken resolve. It has been credibly reported to us that this morning some elements of the Itsekiri community, assisted and escorted by officers of the Nigeria Police Force, forcibly removed and tore down the coronation banners erected for the King of Ogbe-Ijoh, Warri Kingdom. These banners were cultural emblems, lawful expressions of tradition and communal identity, displayed openly and peacefully. The removal of those banners by persons in police uniform is not a routine enforcement action; it is a partisan, inflammatory act that wounds the dignity of a people and threatens the fragile peace of our constituency.

We are Ijaw people of Warri Federal Constituency. Our presence in Ogbe-Ijoh, Gbaramatu, Egbema, Isaba and neighbouring towns is long-standing and indisputable. We are peace-loving, law-abiding citizens who cherish our traditions and expect the State to protect them equally. To see state security personnel participate in the suppression of our cultural symbols is to watch the instruments of law used to deny the very rights they are sworn to defend.

HISTORICAL & LEGAL CONTEXT

This incident cannot be divorced from the longer history of contested narratives and structural marginalisation in Warri. Over decades, colonial reclassifications and selective administrative conveniences produced distorted perceptions of authority and overlordship. Those historical distortions do not justify contemporary acts of state-backed humiliation. Under our Constitution, the people are sovereign and government exists to secure the rights, safety and dignity of every community. Any state action that privileges one ethnic narrative at the expense of another violates the fundamental compact of the Republic.

CONSTITUTIONAL BREACHES & PRINCIPLES FRAGILE OR IGNORED

By allowing or participating in the removal of the coronation banners, the following core principles are affronted:

• The sovereignty of the people and equality before the law.
• The protection of cultural rights and dignity.
• The duty of security agencies to remain neutral and to protect, not suppress, lawful cultural expression.

We remind the Federal Government and the Nigeria Police that public trust is not granted indefinitely; it is earned and can be withdrawn the moment security agencies become instruments of ethnicity and exclusion.

DEMANDS (IMMEDIATE & NON-NEGOTIABLE)

Accordingly, we demand the following urgent actions to be carried out and publicly confirmed within 72 hours from service of this letter:

1. Immediate restoration of all coronation banners and cultural paraphernalia removed, with guarantees of protection for any forthcoming lawful cultural displays.

2. An open, independent and time-bound investigation (with civilian oversight) into the conduct of the police officers involved, naming units, officers and any collaborators and the prompt publication of the investigative findings.

3. Disciplinary and criminal action against any police personnel found to have acted unlawfully, together with sanctions appropriate to their misconduct.

4. A binding public directive from the Inspector-General of Police reminding all officers in Delta State and the Niger Delta of their oath to impartiality, and ordering the immediate cessation of any partisan policing in chieftaincy, cultural or local governance matters.

5. A Federal Government assurance that the Ijaw, Urhobo and Itsekiri peoples will be treated with equal recognition and protection under the law, and that no community will be allowed to appropriate state power to suppress another.

A CAUTIOUS BUT FIRM WARNING

We are not a people who rush to violence, nor will we ply the highway of unlawful retaliation. Our patience is deliberate and strategic. But patience is not passivity. If the State continues to countenance the use of its instruments to humiliate and dispossess, we will be compelled to pursue all lawful remedies to the fullest: public interest litigation, petitions to oversight institutions, concerted peaceful demonstrations, engagement of national and international human rights mechanisms and the full exposure of any offending personnel and their enablers.

Let the record be clear: we prefer justice over conflict; we prefer dialogue over confrontation. The choice to avoid crisis rests primarily with the Federal Government and the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force. Act now to restore confidence or be prepared to answer to history and to the conscience of the nation.

CLOSING

We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Inspector-General Kayode Egbetokun to act swiftly, transparently and decisively. Restore our banners. Restore our dignity. Restore the neutrality of the State. Failure to do so will be interpreted not as negligence but as a deliberate siding with oppression, a grave betrayal of the trust reposed in the Federal Government and its security institutions.

Signed,

Chief, Tiemopere Joshua
(President)

Chief, Ebikeme T. Godstime
(Secretary)

Concern Ijaw Stakeholders, Warri Federal Constituency

Cc:
National Security Adviser
Delta State Government
National Human Rights Commission.
National Assembly Committee on Police Affairs
International Human Rights Organisations
National and Local Media Houses

OPEN LETTER TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF NIGERIA

RE: CHIEF BROWN MENE’S FALSEHOOD ON CHANNELS TV AND THE URGENT NEED FOR INEC TO ANNOUNCE THE FINAL WARD DELINEATION RESULT IN WARRI FEDERAL CONSTITUENCY

From: Concerned Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency
Date: [9/9/2025]

Introduction: A Shameful Display of Ignorance on National Television

We watched with shock and disgust as Chief Brown Mene appeared on Channels Television to declare that “Ijaws do not deserve wards in Warri because they already have Bomadi, Burutu and Patani LGAs.” What a shameful, ignorant and reckless statement! His words were not only an insult to the Ijaw Nation but also a direct attack on constitutional democracy, justice and truth.

Does Chief Mene not know that representation in Warri Federal Constituency is determined by population and settlement within the constituency, not by whether an ethnic group has other LGAs elsewhere? His argument is nothing but the babbling of an old political psychopath who has long fed on lies.

Who Truly Deserves More Wards? Facts Speak for Themselves

Population & Landmass: The Ijaws of Warri South-West and Warri South occupy larger geographical areas and outnumber the Itsekiri by far. From Ogbe-Ijoh to Gbaramatu, Diebiri to Isaba, the Ijaw presence is dominant, contiguous, and historical.

First Settlers: Historical records prove that the Ijaws were the aboriginal settlers of Warri. Portuguese explorer Duarte Pacheco Pereira in 1485 testified to meeting “ Sobos and Ijo (Ijoes)” along Escravos and Warri rivers long before the Itsekiri identity even existed.

Leases and Court Judgments: Colonial lease documents and landmark cases (e.g., Ogegede v. Dore Numa, 1925; Ometan v. Dore Numa, 1926; Shell v. Tiebo VII, 1996) all affirm that Ijaws owned vast areas of land, which the Itsekiri only accessed through tenancy and manipulation of colonial structures.

How then can a people with no real land mass, no numerical strength and no aboriginal claim to Warri dictate who deserves wards?

Constitutional and Legal Authority

The Constitution is unambiguous:

Section 14(2)(b) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended): “The security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of government.” Welfare here includes equitable representation.

Section 42(1): “A citizen of Nigeria shall not, be subjected to any, discrimination merely by reason of his community, ethnic group, place of originn” Denying Ijaws wards because they “have Bomadi” is pure ethnic discrimination.

Section 91: The Constitution provides for fair representation based on population and equality of votes. This is why the Supreme Court in SC/CV/1033/2023, George Timinimi v. INEC ordered INEC to redraw and balance the wards in Warri.

Electoral Act 2022, Section 115(2): empowers INEC to ensure delineation that reflects population realities.

The law is clear: Ijaws deserve wards in Warri because they live there, in greater numbers, with larger communities, not because of LGAs elsewhere.

Brown Mene’s Contradictions and Historical Hypocrisy

Chief Brown Mene knows very well that:

Ode-Itsekiri, their so-called headquarters, is land historically belonging to the Ijaws. Oral traditions and archival records confirm that Ginuwa, the exiled Benin prince, was ferried and settled by Ijaws who gave him a wife and land.

The Itsekiri have always relied on colonial manipulation and political fraud to claim what they never owned. That legacy of deceit is collapsing today under the weight of facts.

Instead of admitting the truth, Mene sat on national TV, spewing hatred and lies, as though Nigeria is still under colonial dictates.

Call to the Federal Government and INEC

We warn in the strongest terms:

INEC must immediately publish the final delineation result for Warri Federal Constituency as ordered by the Supreme Court.

Any further delay is provocative and dangerous. If violence erupts in Warri due to this unnecessary delay, INEC and those manipulating it will be held squarely responsible.

The Federal Government must rise above ethnic manipulation and compel INEC to obey the Constitution and the Supreme Court ruling without further hesitation.

Conclusion

Who deserves more wards? The Ijaws do.
Who has the population and land mass? The Ijaws do.
Who were the aboriginal settlers of Warri? The Ijaws were.

It is pathetic that an old man like Brown Mene still chooses lies over truth. His disgraceful performance on Channels TV is proof that some individuals would rather sink the ship of democracy than accept justice.

We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the National Assembly and the Federal Government to act swiftly: compel INEC to announce the final delineation result now. Democracy cannot bow to ethnic blackmail and lies.

Signed:

Chief, Tiemopere Joshua
(President)

Chief, Ebikeme T. Godstime
(Secretary)

Concerned Ijaw Stakeholders of Warri Federal Constituency

The Governor of Delta State

The National Assembly

The National Security Adviser (NSA)

United Nations, AU, EU