As more crisis rock the cancelled Ijaw National Congress elections with feelers making round that some persons under the supervision of the current President of Ijaws National Congress (INC) with Electoral Committee of the Congress have planned to conduct the election on Monday, April 13, 2026, the Council of Ijaw Traditional Rulers and Elders (CITRE) has called on all Ijaw sons and daughters to boycott the purported election.

Speaking on Sunday in Yenagoa during a press briefing, the Chairman of CITRE, HRM, King Bubaraye Dakolo Agada IV, Ibenanaowei of Ekpetiama Kingdom, disclosed that the election is illegal and therefore should be boycotted by all sons and daughters of the Ijaw Nation.

King Dakolo, who is also the Chairman of the Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, also revealed that CITRE has the mandate, according to some sections of the INC Constitution, to resolve all pending petitions and misunderstandings before an election of INC will be conducted, maintaining that the current President, in the person of Professor Benjamin Okaba, was taking the law into his hands.

He emphatically stated that he had already contacted the Bayelsa State Commissioner of Police to mount guard and make sure that no gathering concerning the election takes place in Ijaw House or any other place within the Ijaw Nation on Monday.

Declaring that any executive who may be set up through any means will be regarded as illegal.

The CITRE Chairman maintained that the case is already in court and therefore will be regarded as contempt of court if the election goes on.

He said:” On the 9th of April, 2026, CITRE met here in the Traditional Rulers Council to discuss the way forward. After the delegations, positions were taken that the election into the National Executive Council of the Ijaw National Congress, NEC, INC, which was scheduled for Monday, 13th of April, 2026, by the National Electoral Committee of the Ijaw National Congress, has been temporarily suspended until further notice until CITRE says so.

“And going further, CITRE also appointed a seven-man committee, which I lead, to resolve all the issues that have brought us to where we are today.

“Unfortunately, however, there are rumours that the current president of INC and a few others also convened a meeting on the 9th, and their position is that elections must be held, and that is particularly troubling, because if you check the constitution of the INC, it clearly points out the organs of INC.

“You have the NEC, National Executive Council, you have the NRC, and then you have the CETRI. Now, in Article 14, where the functions of all these organs are spelt out, 14d zeroes in on the functions of CETRI.

” Now, Article 14d e says that CETRI is to settle disputes arising from elections, F, settle disputes between members of Congress, officers and organs of Congress. Now, from that moment, and even before that moment, it is CETRI’s duty to deal with issues that maybe ELECO is not able to resolve, and particularly complaints against ELECO itself.

“The decision of CETRI shall be final in such disputes. So, CETRI in the Ijaw Nation is as good as the Supreme Court, and so the Supreme Court of the Ijaw Nation met on the 9th and suspended the electoral process. If any Ijaw man goes to the Ijaw house tomorrow, he will be violating the constitution, he will be disrespecting CETRI, and he will be disrespecting himself.”

Some of the issues that the contestants raised, according to the chairman of CETRI, were that on the supposed election date (7th of March 2026), it was actually the President of INC(Benjamin Okaba), who brought an electronic voting outfit and not by ELECO itself.

” And so the position was that ELECO should go and procure its own vendor by itself. ELECO should manage the entire process by itself, adding ” as it stands, CETRI is not aware if ELECO has gotten their independence financially, and whether ELECO has also procured a vendor.”

Harping more on the duties of CETRI, King Dakolo maintained that the INC in the constitution is designed in a manner that there is actually no gap.

“So when I saw it on social media, I felt it was a prank, because I did not believe that any such thing would happen without any information to CETRI. So CETRI didn’t know at all. No letter to me to date, no correspondence on that subject matter to CETRI until tomorrow morning. And so I felt this must be a prank.

” I have also written to the Commissioner of Police, asking him to ensure that there is no gathering of Ijaws, in the name of INC Elections, into NEC tomorrow, anywhere in Yenagoa or in Bayelsa State.

“Until CETRI concludes its findings and comes up with resolutions and advises NEC and ELECO accordingly, there should be no attempt at further infringement or taking people for a ride.

“Subsequently, efforts are being made to ensure that the issues culminating in that particular truncation were well resolved.” He stated.