OPIAH ASKS INEC TO REVIEW IMO ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCIES •••CITES CONSTITUTIONAL DISCREPANCY -

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OPIAH ASKS INEC TO REVIEW IMO ASSEMBLY CONSTITUENCIES

•••CITES CONSTITUTIONAL DISCREPANCY

Former Speaker of the Imo State House of Assembly, former member of the House of Representatives and former Minister of State for Education, Rt. Hon. Goodluck Opiah, has petitioned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), seeking a review and re-delineation of state constituencies in Imo State over a discrepancy between the existing arrangement and the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

In a letter dated October 14, 2026, addressed to the INEC Chairman at the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja, Opiah, through his solicitors, Lex Fontis Legal Practitioners, urged the electoral body to commence a formal review of the state’s 27 House of Assembly constituencies.

The letter, signed by Emmanuel Opiah, Esq., for the law firm, argued that the current arrangement requires constitutional scrutiny, citing Sections 91, 112, 113, 114 and 115 of the Constitution which address the composition of State Houses of Assembly and the division of states into constituencies.

According to the petition, Imo State has 10 federal constituencies, while Section 112 provides that the number of state constituencies in each state shall be three or four times the number of federal constituencies.

Applying that provision, the lawyers argued that Imo should have either 30 or 40 state constituencies, rather than the existing 27, which falls short of the minimum figure envisaged by the Constitution.

The letter also drew attention to Section 113, which requires constituency boundaries to be drawn such that the number of inhabitants in each constituency is as nearly equal as practicable, and Section 114(1), which mandates INEC to review the division of every state into constituencies at intervals of not less than 10 years.

The solicitors contended that the existing arrangement has not undergone a comprehensive review since 1999 and called on the Commission to examine whether the present configuration meets constitutional requirements.

They requested INEC to undertake a formal assessment of the 27 constituencies, determine the appropriate number and boundaries, and take necessary administrative and legal steps to address any discrepancy. They asked the Commission to communicate its position within 30 days.

The solicitors indicated that their client prefers the matter to be resolved through constitutional and administrative processes, without recourse to litigation.