By David Ejishie
MOI Officer, reporting from Ministry of Information and Orientation
Cross River State Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Comrade Asu Okang has assured Cross Riverians and residents in the State that the State Government will not relent in it’s efforts to eradicate kipnappings and other forms of criminality that has beclowded the State in recent times.
He gave the assurance in Calabar, when he received in audience, the ‘Ohanaeze Indi Igbo’ in Cross River, at the Ministry’s Headquarters.
Comrade Okang decried the recent incessant kipnappings and other forms of criminality across some parts of the State, and warned that the Governor Ben Ayade led administration has commenced and will sustain a total clampdown on the pepetrators of such acts and those caught will be made to face the full wrath of the law.
The Information Commissioner who described such acts as “disturbing”, noted that the State Government is fully committed to safeguarding the lives and properties of all, adding that with the expansion of government to accommodate mostly the youths, creation of several thousands of jobs, building of industries across the State amongst others, there was no justification for anyone to further resort to crime.
He then berated the Federal Government and the United Nations as been partly responsible for the current criminality witnessed in the State.
“The influx of criminals into the State began when the UN ceded Bakassi to Cameroon. Cross River State was by this time alienated from the 13 percent oil derivative formula and so our revenue allocation dropped drastically”.
” To add to the suffering of our people, the Federal Government later introduced the operation ‘delta safe’ across the States of the Niger Delta to chase away every holigan from the Gulf of Guinea towards the Calabar river. Cross River was the only State exempted from benefitting from the exercise”.
” By this time, all those who were involved in the distortion of the security architecture of the entire Niger Delta were pushed and now found a safe haven towards the Bakassi and Ikang areas and started making inroads into Cross River. It became much more challenging for us as a state with the level of finances available to us to be able to tackle the insecurity problem that has just been created.
“But under the proactive steps and leadership structure of Sen. Prof. Ben Ayade, the State has continually tried as much as possible to contain insecurity up till this moment”, Comrade Okang Remarked.
Earlier, the President of Ohanaeze Indi Igbo in Cross River State, Barr. Ugorji Nwabueze, who also doubles as the Special Adviser to Governor Ayade on Non-Indigenes, commended the governor for taking proactive steps in curbing insecurity in the State, particularly in the identification and demolition of buildings used by kipnap Kingpins to stage attacks on their victims and urge the government to sustain the clampdown in other to completely curb the urgly trend, adding that such acts if not brought under control, are capable of undermining the industrialization drive of the State government as well as it’s tourism sector.