Arms search: Clark demands full investigation, says sacking of officers not enough

The convener of the Pan Niger Delta Forum, Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark has called for full investigation into the invasion of his Abuja home by police operatives saying that the sacking of the officers who were carrying out their superior ’ s directive was not enough .Clark also appealed to Niger Delta youths who had threatened to disrupt peace in the region to remain calm while the police investigate the incident fully and bring all those concerned to book .

The Ijaw National leader in a statement he personally signed and made available to PUNCH on Friday noted that he has accepted police apology .

Police operatives had on Tuesday invaded and searched the Abuja home of the 91 -year – old South – South leader over an allegation of stockpiling arms in his home .

Recounting the incident in the statement , Clark said , “ I have considered it necessary , at this point , to personally issue this Statement following the events which have happened in the past few days beginning with the most disturbing and embarrassing entry and search of my Abuja house by some operatives of the Nigeria Police Force .

“ Let me recapitulate that , on that day , that is , Tuesday , 4 th September 2018 , at 12 : 30 pm , the Police Officers in question , from the IGP Special Tactical Squad , under the command of one Deputy Commissioner of Police , Kolo Yusuf , arrived my residence in two vehicles , one 18 -seater Toyota Hiace Bus and a Toyota Hilux with registration number EU 979 ABC . Some of them were outside the gate armed, while three of them came inside and presented to me a Warrant for Search duly issued by a Court of competent jurisdiction.

“ As a law – abiding Citizen , a father of this Country , and a Lawyer of more than 53 years in practice , I dutifully cooperated and permitted them to carry out their official duties . I , however , left them in no doubt of who I am , and questioned if they still wanted to proceed with their official assignment of searching my entire residence for so- called stock – pile of weapons and ammunition from the Niger Delta . ”

The elder statesman while thanking Nigeria and members of the international community insisted that the incident must be investigated to ascertain if a report by a taxi driver was enough for the policemen ’ s action .

He said , “ My profound gratitude to all , from far and wide , both national and international over the great show of empathy since the news came to the public domain .

“ Merely sacking the officers concerned, when they were indeed carrying out official instructions , is not enough , if we are to avert such occurrences in future .

“ The incident , must , therefore , be fully investigated and all those involved brought to book . In this respect , it is important to ascertain if a mere Report by a Taxi driver was enough to act on , how was the Warrant of search obtained from the Court same day ?

“ Why did the very senior Police Officer , whose attention was called , unable to stop the action while it was on – going?”

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