Clark: Chairman, PANDEF

Elder-statesman, Chief Edwin Clark has expressed disappointment at the way the Federal Government and elders from the northern part of the country have kept mute, about an ultimatum given by Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN and a Jihadist group, to the Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa over the ban on open grazing.

Clark said the FG and elders ought to condemn the threat in the interest of peace.

The jihadists, had in an open letter on Sunday, asked Okowa to withdraw his support for the ban on open grazing or risk the state capital, Asaba, being attacked.

This Day reports that in a reaction at a news conference in his Asokoro, Abuja residence, the leader of Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and Chairman of Southern and Middle Belt Leaders Forum (SMBLF), Clark, while frowning on the graveyard silence of President Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government and northern elders, declared that open grazing is buried for good in all the 17 states that make up southern Nigeria.

According to him, the same northern elders who were always quick to accuse Igbo leaders of not publicly condemning the Nnamdi Kanu-led Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) have not deemed it fit to call the jihadists to order.

The former Federal Commissioner for Information expressed concern that less than one week after leaders of thought, traditional rulers and others including himself met on the state of the nation, the Fulani jihadists issued threat to attack Delta State.