PANDEF Raises the Alarm over Warri, Calabar and Asaba Political Violence, Seeks Arrest of Killers

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), has raised the alarm over escalating political violence in the South-South, condemning recent attacks in Warri, Calabar and Asaba and demanding immediate investigations into the incidents, including the killing recorded in the Delta State capital.

The regional socio-political organisation also called on the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of State Services (DSS) and other security agencies to identify, arrest and prosecute those responsible for the violence, warning that the development threatened the region’s longstanding tradition of peaceful coexistence and political tolerance.

PANDEF, in a statement by its National Chairman, Ambassador Godknows Boladei Igali, expressed concern over the incidents in the Warri/Effurun axis on September 18, Calabar on November 4 and Asaba on November 7, where a life was reportedly lost.

The organisation described the incidents as a serious affront to the values of peace, tolerance and mutual respect that bind the people of the Niger Delta.

It said: “As the mother body of the peoples of the region, PANDEF views these developments as a sacrilege to our peaceful co-existence in the Niger Delta and strongly condemns them.”

The forum warned political leaders and their supporters against allowing partisan interests to undermine the relative peace in the region, insisting that violence, intimidation and political thuggery had no place in the democratic culture of the South-South.

It maintained that the people of the region had inherited a tradition of peaceful coexistence, tolerance and political forbearance from their founding fathers, which must be preserved irrespective of political differences.

“Violence, intimidation and political thuggery are alien to the spirit, values and traditions of peaceful coexistence, tolerance and political forbearance for which the people of the South-South are known.

“This is what we inherited from our founding fathers and must be sustained,” PANDEF stated.