Nigerian Police on Tuesday raided the Abuja residence of Ijaw National leader, Chief Edwin Clark in search of arms and ammunitions.
The officers who came from the office of Inspector General of Police, stormed the former federal Commission of Information’s Asokoro residence around 11 o’clock in the morning.
It was gathered that the Tactical team from IGP office came the residence of Convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) with a search warrant from one of the magistrates’ courts in Abuja.
The search was lasted for about two hours as the phones of workers and relatives of the elder statesman who tried to capture the incident on video and threatened to beat them until the clips were deleted.
However , reacting to the development,National Chairman of Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (retd), condemned the invasion and resort to totalitarianism by government, demanding that the police publish their findings immediately.
PANDEF chairman, Nkanga, said, “We condemn in totality the action of the police while we are hopeful that they will give us the result of the invasion. If they said they are looking for arms and have found no arms, they should very quickly apologize to him, the entire Nigeria and let us know why they have brought us into this state of affairs.
He added: “We criticize it in totality and it will not end here, the government should stand up and start telling us whether we are in democracy because what is happening now is not democracy again, this is totalitarianism.”
“Though the handwriting seemed to be on the wall before now because we have been observing impunity, if we are going back into military dictatorship, the government should let us know, that is what we have also been crying about. Let them publish the result of their invasion very quickly. If they do not do that, then Nigerians will start to know what is ahead of them, this is not democracy,” he said.
Reacting to the invasion, Ijaw Youth Council, IYC- led by Pereotubo Oweilaemi Esq., in a statement, said: “Nigeria is gradually descending into a fully blown anarchy. This is dangerous for our democracy. Nigeria is heading to the cliff.”
“Relevant stakeholders need to rise in defence of our hard earned democracy. President Buhari should call his overbearing security agencies to order before they plunge the country into an unmitigated crisis.
“There can be no democracy where there is no dissenting voice. Mr. President should accept that our democracy cannot exist without opposition elements to his government. Chief Clark, who is an elder statesman, his views on national issues need to be appreciated by the government of the day instead of being witch hunted,” he said.
Similarly, Inspector General of Police Mr. Ibrahim Idris has denied sending junior officers to raid the residence of the former Federal Commissioner for Information and South South Leader, Chief Edwin Clark.
