Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) has described as reckless, disrespectful and a great insult to the Ijaw nation, Saturday’s invasion of the Kiagbodo, Delta State, the country home of Ijaw leader, Edwin Clark, by soldiers.
The umbrella body of Ijaw youth worldwide, in a statement, yesterday, vowed to hold the Nigerian military responsible, if anything untoward happens to the 97-year-old elder statesman.
In the statement signed by its spokesman, Binebia Princewill, IYC tasked the military to work strictly with intelligence and not to go out of the rules of engagement.
It reads: “We are in a democratic era and not a purely military regime. The invasion and destruction of properties at Pa Clark’s House in Kiagbodo, Burutu Local Council of Delta State on Saturday is a great insult to the Ijaw people and highly condemnable.
“While IYC has been patriotic by condemning the attack that resulted in the killing of 17 soldiers at Okuama, an Urhobo community in Ughelli South Local Council of Delta State on Thursday, March 14, 2024, the Ijaw nation is now thrown into deep mourning, as over 70 persons have been killed under the guise of tracking those that carried out the dastardly act. That the over 70 persons killed so far are all connected to the Okuama attack is what no one can verify at the moment.”
According to the youths, Clark has diligently served this country as a senator and a First Republic information minister.
They added: “He is the leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF). To even think that he will be harbouring criminal elements in his house is the greatest slap on his face and that of the Niger Delta people.
“Let us make this clear; nobody is stopping the military from carrying out its duties to flush out criminal elements, what we are saying is that they should work with credible intelligence so that innocent people will not pay for a sin they did not commit. Now that nothing incriminating was found at Pa Clark’s residence, how will the military pay for the damage caused to the personality of the nonagenarian?”
IYC argued that even in the North, where there had been serious battles between the Federal Government, Boko Haram, herdsmen and bandits, “we are yet to see any form of invasion on the residence of highly respected Northern elders, either in their states or Abuja. This is too much for us as a people.”
