The Nigeria Police has apologised toIjaw leader, Chief Edwin Clark, over the unauthorised raid on his Abuja house on Tuesday.
A team led by a Deputy Inspector General of Police, Joshack Habila, visited Clark today to offer an apology on behalf of the police hierarchy.
Policemen, led an Assistant Superintendent of Police, had reportedly raided Clark’s house in Asokoro and conducted a search of the premises for an undisclosed reason.
Police authorities later revealed that the policemen had acted based on false information given to them by an informant.
The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, also denounced the action of the policemen and ordered their immediate arrest.
A statement today by the Force Public Relations Officer, Ag. DCP Jimoh Moshood, said the informant who misled the police would be paraded in a press conference later today and subsequently charged to court.
The full statement reads:
The attention of the Nigeria Police Force was drawn to reports in the media of 4th and 5th September, 2018 that the Police on Tuesday raided the Abuja residence of Former Federal Commissioner for Information and South-South Leader, Elder Statesmen, Chief Edwin Clark.
The Force wishes to categorically state that, the Inspector General of Police is not aware and did not order the raid of the residence of the Elder Statesman, Chief Edwin Clark.
Consequently, the Inspector General of Police has directed the detention and investigation of the Four (4) Police personnel and the informant involved and ordered that the outcome of the preliminary investigation into the matter be made public.
Notwithstanding, the facts that on daily basis the Nigeria Police Force across the Country receives information from members of the public which were promptly used to prevent and detect crimes and Criminalities, the Force will not condone misconducts by any of its personnel that can run contrary to the rule of law. The Police therefore, has the statutory rights to execute a duly obtained search warrant in any premises where it has actionable intelligence or information that incriminating items or exhibits used to commit crime or about to be used for criminality with the aims of recovering them to prevent the commission of such crime or to detect the crime that have been committed.
Any officer who is to carry out the execution of search warrant must follow the laid down procedures within the law. Where such is not followed, such an officer must be made to face the consequences of violating the rule of law.
The followings are the names of the Police Officers involved
(i) ASP David Dominic
(ii) Inspr Godwin Musa
(iii) Inspr Sada Abubakar
(iv) Inspr Yabo Paul
(v) Ismail Yakubu – Informant from Waru Village, Apo District, Abuja.
The Officer that led the team has been queried and the three (3) Inspectors are currently undergoing orderly trial for the appropriate punishment to be meted out on them.
The IGP sent high powered delegation, led by a DIG and other Senior Police Officers to apologize to the Elder statesman over the search by the mentioned Four (4) Police Personnel (including a Senior Police Officer) and an informant roles in the unauthorized, illegal and unprofessional misconduct in the Search of Chief Edwin Clark’s Residence in Asokoro, Abuja on the 4th of September, 2018.
The delegation was received by Chief Edwin Clark and the apology was accepted by him.
The informant (suspect), Ismail Yakubu – Informant from Waru Village, Apo District, Abuja will be arraigned in court this morning for giving false information and telling falsehood to mislead police action.
Ag. DCP JIMOH MOSHOOD
FORCE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER
FORCE HEADQUARTERS
ABUJA
