SLUG: Don't Insult Chief Clark - Ijaw group warns Babangida, northern leaders

BY SHOLA O'NEIL

Ijaw group, Ijaw Peoples Development Initiative, has warned former military dictator General Ibrahim Babangida and other northern leaders against unbridled attacks on foremost Ijaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark.

Clark came under intense criticism last weekend after lambasting Babangida and former President Olusegun Obasanjo because of a joint statement issued by the duo on the prevailing security situation in the northern parts of the country.

However, IPEDI, in a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Comrade Austin Ozobo, said his kinsmen would not take kindly to further verbal attacks by Babangida and others on Chief Clark.

Ozobo described Babangida’s stern riposte and northern leaders’ castigation of Clark, a former Information Minister, as “barbaric and uncalled for.”

He said: “Gen Mohammadu Buhari said during the presidential polls that he will make the country ungovernable if the election was not conducted the way he wishes. He lost the election, went to court, he lost and now the country is ungovernable. What is wrong if Papa Clark said he should held liable for the ongoing Boko Haram menace?

Recalling that members of Babangida’s campaign organizations were arrested for the Independent Day bombing, Ozobo said Chief Clark’s call for the former military President’s arrest was in order, adding, “I want the northern leaders to be reasonable; I charge them to go back and read Papa Clark statement once again.”

He challenged northern leaders to prove their sincerity in tackling the violence and security challenges in the North by openly condemning the activities of the militant Islamic sect.