A group, the New Niger
Delta Emancipation Coalition has given reasons why elder statesman Edwin
Clark should be punished by the federal government.
The group in a statement signed by its spokesperson Lucky Humphrey on
Sunday, September 11, said the elder statesman must be punished
alongside militants under the aegis of Niger Delta Avengers.
Referring to Clark and the avengers as crisis entrepreneur, the group
said the duo must immediately put and end to the harassment of the
Nigerian state or face the consequences of their criminal actions in the
oil producing communities of the South-South.
Also describing itself as an intellectual platform, NNDEC, said the
group is made up of true Niger Delta sons that are against the actions
of the Niger Delta Avengers and their collaborators.
Humphrey said, Clark and the militants that he has described as his
children have set the region behind in terms of development.
He added that
henceforth, the people of Niger Delta see Clark as their enemy and have
jointly called for a punishment against him over the crisis happening in
the region.
Humphrey said: “We found
it pertinent to disown Chief Edwin Clark and his minions at this time
as we have realized that they have death wishes and would like to burn
down the entire Niger Delta in their desperation for pecuniary gains.”
He said the red line was crossed by these characters when they started
making claims that the avengers have killed soldiers.
He said the true indigenes of the region see the act as criminal and
deliberate attempt to provoke the Nigerian army into taking actions
against them and create the excuse to further antagonize the Nigerian
state.
“We warn that we will be left no option other than to expose Chief Edwin
Clark for Nigerians and the whole world to see the true face of the
avengers, which is driven by crisis entrepreneurs as opposed to the
fraudulent image of freedom fighters being painted by the career
criminals behind recent attacks on economic assets and troops in the
Niger Delta,” Humphrey said.
“We call on elders from other geopolitical zones and even from the
South-South to disown and condemn Chief Clark for his role in misleading
the “children” of the region. Our worry is that other elders across the
country would be misled into following in his footstep if this Ijaw
chief is allowed to get away with using youths as war fodder,” he said.