THE RAID ON THE HOME OF CHIEF EDWIN CLARK: ONE BREACH TOO MANY...

THE PRESIDENCY MUST TAKE A STAND - Ditimi Akene

The Save Ijaw Nation Group (SING) condemns, in its totality, the illegal and inhuman occupation of the home of Elder Statesman and front line Niger Delta leader, Chief Edwin K. Clark. It is sad that Nigerian law enforcement agencies continue to regress in their mindset and methods, in spite of embarrassments they have brought to the good and industrious people of the country.

To even remotely suggest that Chief Clark, who had championed the peace moves between government and militants in the Niger Delta, would be storing arms in his home is rather preposterous and smacks of lack of knowledge of modern methods of crime prevention. If a man of Chief Clark’s standing in society could be subjected to such treatment at his age, the treatment young Niger Delta receive on a daily basis in the hands of security aagencies can only be imagined.

Even more worrying is the total silence of the Presidency and Attorney General of the Federation in this matter and the series of others that have come to characterize the present administration. The numerous activities of Government agents such as SARS, STS, DSS and others ordinarily ought to move the Commander-In-Chief swing into action to restore public confidence in the capacity of government to protect lives and property within the bounds of the law, but our presidency has continued to maintain an untenable and indefensible silence.

The belated  apologies of the IGP would be a meaningless episode in the tragicomic drama that his tenure has served the Nigerian taxpayers he is meant to serve, if the officers responsible aren’t brought to book and made to pay for their treasonable and shameful act. The IGP is would do well  to resign his appointment and quit the stage for a more competent person to assume the mantle as Nigerians cannot afford the gamble that his incompetence has turned the serious business of securing them into.

The Presidency on the other hand has no tenable excuse to continue to keep a man who openly defied the President's direct orders and has continued to embarrass the government and people of Nigeria in ways hitherto unimaginable for a senior Police officer whou ought to be a beacon of intelligence, discreteness and discipline. In continuing to keep the current IGP, the presidency would be setting itself in opposition to the people of Nigeria who elected it into office in the first place.