Three Nigerian police officers have been sacked
and another one suspended over the “unauthorised” raid of Edwin Clark’s house
in Abuja on Tuesday, the Force Headquarters said Thursday.
Mr Clark’s home in Asokoro neighbourhood was
reportedly stormed by officers in the afternoon. The officers reportedly said
they were hunting for illicit weapons which the elder statesman allegedly
stockpiled at his residence.
Mr Clark denied the allegations and demanded an
immediate apology. Inspector-General Ibrahim Idris immediately distanced
himself from the raid and sent top-level police officers, including a deputy
inspector-general, to apologise to Mr Clark at his residence.
The 91-year-old said he had accepted the
apology, but expressed strong doubts that the men who carried out the raid were
unauthorised.
As messages of outrage and condemnation poured
in on Wednesday morning, the police announced that three inspectors were
already facing orderly room trial for their roles in the raid. A fourth
officer, who is an assistant superintendent of police and the most-senior of
the four, was queried and is now said to be on suspension, according to a
statement released shortly after 2:00 p.m. by police spokesperson Jimoh
Moshood.
Mr Moshood, an acting deputy police
commissioner, said the informant whom the police blamed for providing false
information to the officer had been charged to court. The police said the
officers were misled into conducting the raid by the informant, but said they
failed to carry out their due diligence before acting on the tip-off, which now
backfired.
No comments:
Post a Comment