Calabar And Insecurity: An Expanding Concern Yet To Be Addressed
Monday, 13th November, 2023 | 9:27AM
She had gone to Holy Family Catholic Church in Big Qua Town to worship, on coming out to pick something from her car less than 9minutes of parking the car, she came out and discovered someone had entered and started the car. In shock, she shouted, “thieve! thieve!!”. Confidently the car thief reversed the car, head towards highway, and the rest they say is history.
When I ran into her, she was still in pains three months after her car was stolen, nothing has been heard about her car. She was quick to remind me that, that car made it possible for her to move around and to carry her kids to school not even mentioning the fact that her gratuity of service was what that car represented. A retiree who now treks due to a car crime in Calabar that has spiralled out of state control.
Ededet Effiong, whose car was equally stolen just last month, on the 5th of October around 2pm, ran into me a week ago before I traveled. He decried the frustration of his car that was stolen. And in his raw and expressive pain, he was of the view that it is completely depressing to know that nothing tangible has come out from the search exercise one month after and neither the police force nor any paramilitary institutions have been able to solve this car theft problem as he narrated to me that, just two weeks ago another car was stolen opposite the Redeemed Christian Church of God at Akim Timber Market.
That is three car gone, Citizens’ Solution Network hasn’t mentioned theirs nor provided the full list of what is plaguing the state due to the absence of strong leadership to end this crime.
Charles Eyo, a renowned journalist, yesterday being Sunday was explaining to Agba Jalingo how armed robbers with machetes, guns, sticks, etc took over the Calabar-Itu road and dispossessed travelers and commuters of their belongings yesterday, and that they operated for hours and no security or law enforcement agency came to the rescue of these hapless citizens.
This is the situation we find ourselves in the State, where citizens are left to suffer under the encouraged crime-ribbon that is spreading across every part including homes, offices and roads, yet every month, billions of Nairas come to Cross River State as State and Local Government Allocations not even listing security votes amidst huge internally generated revenues. Question is, what are all these money used for? Security and welfare are the first score cards, outside propaganda what can you point to?
Too often those of us asking that something reasonable, responsible and responsive be done are considered the problem, they just want citizens to endure the pain, suck it up and die in their frustration. And what happens too often? Jungle justice becomes the order of the day in the visible absence of State coordinate response to growing and expanding insecurity in the state. The question is no longer if, it’s when someone else becomes the next victim. I was at Rwanda sometime back and I discovered that, every major street has cameras, I mean Rwanda, that is an African country and they ain’t wiser than us and the credit to a large extent is due to what the governors and mayors are doing than what the media want people to believe that all credit goes to Paul Kagame.
There has been sustained calls by activists sent to the State Government to use technology and proper funding of the State Police Command to deter these crimes, because from all indications, Calabar has fast become the safest haven to steal car, kidnap hard-working professionals like Prof. Ephraim and go scot-free, and then plan the next attack since nothing on ground suggests deterrence, counter intelligence and rebalancing of the fear matrix against the criminals who now move freely with the audacity to steal cars, rob whosoever they please and even kidnap who they target with little or no cameras and intelligence to track where they are, living citizens to pay money to continue the search and retrieval process of either their stolen items or loved ones respectively.
As they say, the cost of insecurity can be unquantifiable; as I remember the woman whose car was stolen in her pains and Mr. Ededet’s suffering since that incidence happened just to mention a few; someone was quick to bring to my attention that, the funeral procession that happened in the Dome at the Calabar Municipal Council last month, was that of one of the patients of Prof. Ephraim_ the neurologist who was caring for the stroke patient until the doctor was kidnapped, and the patient had to die in the absence of her care giver who happened to be Prof Ephraim. But that isn’t all, the sister of Prof. Ephraim had long suffered psychological breakdown since she had come to the frustration of her sister’s kidnapping that has entered months without closure from a so called community project government_ that says voting them into winning their election is a community project that all citizens should join hands to achieve for them during the election, and now, since they got into Peregrino Government House in Calabar, all you see is the tightening of their own personal security with escorts, and arm guards while public security is treated with utter disregard thereby causing organisations like mine to suffer car theft and others to go through one insecurity pain or the other. So, who is fooling who? During election, they come with the mantra of community project, and afterwards, all citizens are abandoned to fed for themselves as they suffer irresponsive leadership to their plight.
It is the primary responsibility for Government to protect citizens and their assets using public wealth and arms in their disposal from insecurity. That responsibility in itself is the bargaining chip for faith in government and political survival. Hence the need for the government to prioritize public security in the same measure they fund and supply the need of their private guards as overseen by state resources. The lamed press release that says insecurity is a national problem and commonplace should be discarded_ nobody elects any person to keep doling such expired and dysfunctional justification for ineptitude in the face of new crime estimates.
*Citizens’ Observatory*, the research wing of Citizens’ Assembly and Citizens’ Solution Network, will continue to investigate, document and report this abandonment of citizens to their travails as they suffer from possible suicidal silence from insecurity especially as nothing as regards Victims’ Funds and Crime Victim Support Centre isn’t set up to help cushion the financial and distabling psychological burden that comes with their losses, pains and frustration due to insecurity in the State, and to enable victims get back on track with the belief that their government shows up when they are in pains through such proposed victim’s support funds and centre.
Signed
Richard F Inoyo,
Country Director,
Citizens’ Solution Network