GROUP DESCRIBES RAIDS ON CLERK AND KUKU RESIDENCES AS A DELIBERATE ETHNIC TARGET
A group known as Ijaw Solidarity Forum (ISF) has described the raids on the residences of Chief Edwin Clark and Kingsley Kuku as a deliberate ethic target.
In a statement signed by the Group Coordinator, Borowei Peretei and made available to newsmen on Friday in Arogbo, Ondo State capital.
Peretei frowned at the raid of police operatives on the Asokoro, Abuja residence of Elder Statesman and the leader of Pan-Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, Chief Edwin Clark on Tuesday 4th September 2018. He described the raid as a deliberate ethnic target aimed at embarrassing and silencing opposition voices ahead of 2019 election.
The statement read, “The move is a clearly premeditated political attempt and a tacit ploy to intimidate the opposition ahead of the 2019 general elections”. Peretei said that nothing could have offended the people of Ijaw ethnic tribeb more than the reckless conduct of the police, all in the name of searching for non-existing arms and ammunition in the homes of their illustrious sons.
The statement further read, “No bigger insult could have been meted out to the people of Ijaw ethnic tribe by the police than the raid on the residence of a 91 year old foremost Ijaw son.
Peretei said, “We cannot fathom what a man of Chief Clark’s age would be doing with weapons which as a matter of fact only exist in the imagination of the police. And more offending to our collective sensibilities was the fact that there was no trace of any arm or ammunition in the Elder Statesman’s residence at the end of the unjustifiable search”.
Peretei also lamented an earlier raid of similar nature that was premised on the same lame excuse of searching for illegal arms which was carried out in the Arogbo – Ijaw of Kingsley Kuku. Peretei said, “It will be recalled that a similar raid was carried out by a team of police detachment on the instruction of Police Inspector General at the Arogbo-Ijaw residence of Dr. Kingsley Kuku. Some relations of the former Presidential Amnesty Coordinator were manhandled while some properties were either destroyed or badly handled during the course of this raid. At the end, there was no trace of any arm or ammunition in the residence”.
The group said that they refused to believe that these chain of illegal events were mere coincidences. Rather, the group was of the opinion that the Ibrahim Idris was merely unveiling a dress rehearsal of planned police harassments and intimidation to be unleashed on the opposition voices in 2019.
Meanwhile, Peretei said that notwithstanding Ibrahim Idris denial that he had no fore-knowledge of the raid on Clark’s residence and his panicky reaction which already led to the dismissal of three police Inspectors; President Buhari was urged to query Ibrahim Idris for his incessant provocative excesses.
The group however warned that any further police harassment targeted on any son or daughter of Ijaw ethnic tribe could derail the prevailing peace being enjoy in the Niger Delta region of the country.
