Clark Calls for Restraint over New Militant’s Threat

By Omon-Julius Onabu in Asaba

Elder statesman, Chief Edwin Clark, has appealed for calm following threats from a new militant group that identifies itself the ‘New Delta Avengers’.

In a statement in Asaba Monday evening, Clark stressed that he was making the appeal on behalf of the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) because Delta State and the entire region could not afford to return to the dark days of pervasive oil facility vandalism and other forms of violence and economic sabotage.

He said that the prevailing atmosphere of peace in the Niger Delta should be maintained especially as the federal government has responded positively to certain demands concerning improved development of the region.

He said it was equally worrisome that the new threats were coming at a time ethnic and sectional sentiments were being bandied from different parts of the country and threatening to tear Nigeria apart.

Referring to an advertorial containing an open letter to President Muhammadu Buhari by the New Delta Avengers in the Vanguard Newspaper recently, the Ijaw national leader said: “PANDEF is genuinely disturbed by this publication which has come amidst the prevailing turmoil occasioned by some ethnic agitations in our dear country, Nigeria.”

Details later…