By Austin Ogwuda
A group of lawyers from the Niger Delta region known as Niger Delta Lawyers For Equity has sent a strong word to President Bola Tinubu and Chief of Army Staff to apologise within one week over what it described as “senseless raiding of the home of Pa Edwin Clark”.
The group in a press statement issued in Warri, Delta State, Nigeria, Tuesday, warned that failure to apologise within the one week ultimatum, said, “we shall be left with no option but to file an action against them and make a petition to the Amnesty international and United Nation”.
The group’s Coordinator, Chief (Barr) Akpokona Omafuaire and Secretary, Barr. Amos David signed the statement which reads:
“We at Niger Delta Lawyers for Equity read with dismay and utter disbelief the raiding of the home of our South-South Leader in a commando style. We want to believe it is not real.
“We want the President and Chief of Defence Staff to tender an unreserved apology within one week, failure of which we shall institute a legal action for this great disrespect and international humiliation.
“While everyone condemned the ill-fated incident near Okuama community and commiserate with families of the slain officers, we want to say that the Military operations have gone too far and out of control.
“Pa Clark is the face of the South-South and Niger Delta region, he has paid his dues in the conflagration called Nigeria. And as a result the raiding of his country home is not only an affront to him but to the whole Niger Delta region and its people.
“We understand that when issues concern the region, the security forces want to show their best destructive skills. If they had deplored same aggression in the insecurity in the North, the issue of Boko Haram and bandits will be long gone.
“Pa Clark was one of the first to condemn the killing of soldiers, so why humiliate him for calling for the apprehension of the perpetrators of the heinous crime?
“Can similar action be carried out in the homes of top Fulani and Hausa leaders when such act happened far from their homes in the North?
“We believe it is a calculated move to humiliate and push the voice of the Niger Delta region (Clark) to early grave.
“As a result, we are demanding a national apology from the President and the Chief of Army Staff and not that caricature call”, the statement added.
Recall that the the 97-year-old leader of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Pa Edwin Clark had narrated how Soldiers raided his country home at Okiagbado and that of his father’s house at Ughelli in search of arms last Saturday as a fallout of Okuama’s killings.
Chief Clark further went into the memory lane recalling how Policemen similarly raided his Abuja residence in 2018 and expressed concerns about his safety.
Source: Daily Report
