The Nigerian Police on Wednesday paraded the alleged
informant, one Ismail Yakubu, a native of Waru village in Apo district, Abuja,
for giving false information to the police that led to the search of the Abuja
residence of Chief Edwin Clark.
A team of police personnel led by one Assistant
Superintendent of Police (ASP) David Dominic had last Tuesday afternoon invaded
the home of the South South leader and former Federal Commissioner for Information
in search of alleged stockpile of arms.
Speaking during his parade by the police at the
Force Headquarters in Abuja, the informant gave a detailed accounts of how he
got information that there were arms in Clark's house.
Yakubu, 45, said he was on his way last Monday to
receive a consignment from an anonymous caller around the ECOWAS area in
Asokoro when the taxi he boarded ran into a blockade around Haile Selassie
street in Asokoro, Abuja.
He said on enquiry, he was told by the taxi driver
that the blockade was caused by a truck entering house number 43 Haile Selassie street.
He added that the driver of the taxi categorically
told him that the truck contained arms, and being a citizen of the Federal
Capital Territory (FCT) and going by the relative peace in the FCT, he took it
upon himself to report the matter to the police.
"I did not have access to the STS to report
the matter that Monday evening, so I came on Tuesday and report the matter to
Inspector Sada," he said.
Yakubu insisted he was innocent of any crime,
adding that as a citizen, he was bound to give information to security agencies
that would help curtail or prevent the commission of crime.
But, the police who condemned the raid,
particularly due to the involved officers’ failure to follow due process of the
law in carrying out such search, said the police officers, who are currently
under investigation, would be punished according to the law if convicted of any
misconduct.
Force Public Relations Officer, acting Deputy Commissioner
of Police, Jimoh Moshood, said: "Notwithstanding, the facts that on daily
basis the Nigeria Police Force across the country receives series information
from members of the public which are promptly used to prevent and detect crimes
and criminalities, the Force will not condone misconducts by any of its
personnel that runs contrary to the rule of law.
“The Police, therefore, have 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 crime 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 officer who led the team has been queried,
and the three Inspectors are currently undergoing orderly trial for the
appropriate punishment to be meted out on them."
Moshood, while reiterating the position of the
police over the embarrassment the search has caused, added that the Inspector
General of Police (IG), Ibrahim Idris, had already sent a high powered
delegation led by a DIG and other senior police officers to apologise to the elder
statesman over the search.
Moshood insisted that the search on Clark's
residence last Tuesday by the police officers was unauthorised, illegal and a
display of professional misconduct by the officers.
"The delegation was received by Chief Clark
and the apology was accepted by him.
“The informant (suspect), Ismail Yakubu, from Waru
Village, Abuja, will be arraigned for giving false information and telling
falsehood to mislead police action," he added.
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