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Deployment of Soldiers to Warri Ploy to Elimininate Ijaw, Says Clark

Vanguard (Lagos)
NEWS
May 5, 2003
Posted to the web May 5, 2003

By Sola Adebayo
Warri
IJAW leader, Chief Edwin Clark alleged yesterday that the deployment of over
1000 troops and 20 armoured vehicles to the troubled oil city of Warri was
designed to eliminate his kinsmen. Clark in a chat with newsmen maintained that
"the deployment was aimed at killing the Ijaw of Warri for no just cause."
The Ijaw national leader said his people were not up in arms against the
federal and state governments and that there was no basis for the massive
security onslaught against his people. He challenged the federal government to
volunteer reasons for the deployment of the troops to face the Ijaw of Warri
who, he said, merely embarked on legitimate protest for political freedom.
He said most of the Ijaw victims of the military invasion had nothing to do
with the crisis. His words: "Tension which is being created in Warri is
unfortunate. Ijaws have no quarrel with the federal and State governments and
the armed forces. We are co-operating with the Danjuma committee on the
resolution of the Warri crisis. The federal government is being misled by
misinformation.
"We do not believe that the federal government has been fair to us. What they
did in Odi is what they want to repeat here."
He described as "blatant lie and misconception" the insinuation that the Ijaw
were planning to break away from Nigeria and planning territorial expansion to
cover from Epe in Lagos State to Akwa Ibom along the nation's territorial
waterways.
Clark urged the federal government not to be deceived by the cheap blackmail to
destroy the Ijaw nation, saying that "the Federal Government should not allow
itself to be used to employ sledge hammer to kill an ant. There must have been
a breakdown in communication somewhere."

   

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