Prime Club International, a community-based socio-cultural
organization in Ayakoromo Federated Community within the
Niger Delta expresses with profound grief the demise of
their father, leader and elder statesman, Chief (Pa) Edwin
Kiagbodo Clark.
The Club founded in 1993 geared towards projecting cultural heritage, welfarism and human capital
development in a press statement signed by the newly
elected president, Prince Ahmed Saibakumo and the
spokesman, Barr. Preye Onduku extolled the late eminent
elderstatesman as unforgettable in the memories of the people of
Ijaw nation and the Niger Delta.
The Club thanks God Almighty for blessing their departed
leader 97 graceful years on earth; however, they bemoaned,
“his death came as a heartache because he was the
unshaken voice of the down trodden in the Niger Delta.
He would remain as our lasting treasure and we have no option
than to express our grief because it is the only price we pay
for the love we have for him.”
The Club extends their heartfelt condolences to the
Bekederemo-Fuludu- Clark dynasty for the painful exit of
their father and leader in the blood hood. The Club also
shared their bereavement with the people of Ngbilebiri Mein
Kingdom, the Ijaw nation and Nigeria for this irreplaceable
loss.
They described Barr., Chief, Dr, Senator, Minister, Edwin
Kiagbodo Clark (OFR,CON), the “Osuo”, “Gogorogo”,
“New Power” as a gallant warrior and political warhorse, a
dreaded human-god who has been a fighter to the end.
According to the Club, “Chief Edwin Clark throughout his
battles was guided by R.J. Madisini’s law of “No retreat, no
surrender”.
They recounted that Chief Edwin Clark was a teacher in his
early life as he traversed the humid creeks of Western Ijaw delivering knowledge. “He was an impactful educationist as
he fought for the establishment of the Midwest State Institute of Technology which ultimately became the
forerunner of the great University of Benin.
Chief Edwin Clark later became its pro-chancellor and also a founding Pro-chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Minna in Niger State.
According to the Club, Chief Edwin Clark’s fame became remarkable in the politics of Western Ijaw during the embattled agitations for merger between the Western Ijaws and Rivers State in the late 1960s.The Club recalled that Chief Edwin Clark later became the leading voice of the delegates from the South-South during the
1998 constitutional conference that gave birth to the current Nigerian constitution. The press statement mentioned that Chief Edwin Clark led the historic walkout or boycott by Niger Delta conferees over disagreement on the derivation revenue
accruing the oil bearing Niger Delta States.
According to the press statement, “Chief Edwn Kiagbodo Clark will go down in the annals as the second undisputed leader
of the ijaw nation. The first being Pa (Chief) Harold Dappa-Biriye of Bonny, Rivers State. Chief Harold Dappa-Biriye, was widely recognized as the doyen of minority rights, struggle in Nigeria.
According to the Club, “Chief Dappa-Biriye led the Niger Delta delegates to the Nigerian Pre-Independence talks at lancaster House, London between 1957 and 1958. Chief Dappa-Biriye co-founded the Ijo (Ijaw) People’s League in 1941 which later transformed into the Niger Delta Congress as a political party. Till his death in 2005 at the ripe age of 85, Chief Dappa-Biriye was the flag-bearer for self-determination, major control in the economic and political police by Ijaws in Nigeria”.
The statement added, “Chief Edwin Clark ventures in the Warri crisis in the late 1990s to the leadership of the Pan-Niger
Delta Forum (PANDEF) and the political crisis in Rivers State are a testimony that Chief Edwin Clark throughout his life time; his advocacies for fairness, equity, justice, restructuring were “brutally frank”.
They said that history would be kind to him in the Nigerian context as a fearless fighter who waded through the lion’s dens
no matter whose ox is gored. Till his last breath he was the living defensive wall of his people and the totem of peace and stability in the Nigerian Federation. His legacies would be fondly remembered by generations yet unborn in Ijaw land and
beyond.
The Club called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take charge of the Edwin Clark University as a Federal Institution. It
would be a lasting legacy and monument for the elder statesman. The Club declared its readiness to participate actively in the burial rites of the hero and wish him eternal rest in the bosom of the Lord, Amen.