The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) has condemned the raid by operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) on the residence of Sunday Adeyemo, Yoruba youth leader popularly known as Sunday Igboho.
The DSS declared Igboho wanted on Thursday, after the agency raided his house in the Soka area of Ibadan, Oyo state capital.
The agency said it recovered arms and ammunition from the property, while 13 supporters of the activist, who allegedly attacked DSS operatives during the raid, were paraded on Thursday.
PANDEF, in communique jointly signed by Edwin Clark and Emmanuel Ibok Essien, its national leader and national chairman, respectively, said it stands in solidarity with Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-political group, and the people of south-west.
It further called on President Muhammadu Buhari to “call to order the security agencies and cease all forms of flagrant abuse of power”.
“We condemn the brutal and bloody midnight raid on the residence of Sunday Adeyemo, also known as Sunday Igboho, in the Soka area of Ibadan, by agents of the Department of State Services, (DSS) in a Gestapo manner, during which innocent citizens were killed and properties destroyed,” the communique reads.
“We caution that the reported identification of sponsors of Nnamdi Kanu, should not be an alibi to witch-hunt and persecute phantom enemies imagined by the government and hope that he will be given a fair and trial.”
PANDEF also condemned attacks by gunmen in the Middle Belt region, while maintaining that it stands by its position on restructuring, as “Nigeria cannot continue in the present trajectory of a flawed Constitution and undemocratic tendencies of those operating it”.
The forum further decried “the continued neglect, even outright abandonment, of critical infrastructural projects in the Niger Delta Region, by the Federal Government, such as the East-West Road; the Gas Revolution Industrial Park, Ogidigben and the Omadinor-Escravos Road projects both in Delta State; the Calabar – Ikot Ekpene Road; amongst several others”.
