Paradise News

Category: Security

  • Cross River Police Command confirms Robbery Attack in a New Generation bank in Calabar

    There’s been an incident of armed robbers invading the Ecobank, Marry Slessor Avenue branch which sources including the bank had denied that allegations.

    Contrary to the report by Calabar Reporters concerning the spotting of a notorious militant known as G1, a source told this Reporter that there was no robbery incident at the bank. The source states: “What happened was that a suspected notorious kidnap kingpin was spotted by our security cameras trying to make a withdrawal at the automated teller machine (ATM) in the bank premises. Somehow, security personnel were alerted and they responded. We suspect that before they arrived, the suspect had taken off. It is important to say that the suspect did not enter the bank; if he had entered our bank we are sure he would have been apprehended”.

    However, residents around the Mary Slessor avenue including the nearby streets took to their heels as gunshots where fired by security personnel who arrived the scene later on. 


    Recently, they’ve been a confirmed report by the State Police command of a robbery attack in another branch of Eco bank located at Marian Market, Calabar.

    According to a caller to Hit FM, Calabar, the robbers attacked the area at about 7:10 Pm on Saturday, warning residents and people plying the route to be of consciousness.

    Meanwhile, the State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), ASP Irene Itohan sent a message to a reporter concerning the issue, stating that they did deployed security men to the area. 


    Up till now, the course of the robbery is still unclear to us as we’re making more findings to the matter. 

  • Attack on Cross River Deputy Governor’s Convoy: Ayade Must Act Now

    Cross River State Deputy Governor, Professor Ivara Esu (Middle) 

    By Inyali Peter

    The cyberspace have been so silent to the unimaginable attack on Cross River state deputy Governor, Prof. Ivara Esu’s convoy by some hoodlums who are allegedly “men” of some tough government officials few days ago.

    The attack reportedly claimed the live of a Police officer, bringing the tally of Policemen who have been gunned down by hoodlums in the state in the last five days to three. It also recorded lost of a vehicle in the deputy governor’s convoy while one of the drivers who was shot is currently struggling for survival in an unknown hospital. This is a sad commentary for a state which tourism is the mainstay of her economy.

    This situation pulse a big challenge and a test of the competence of the current administration led by Senator Ben Ayade’s to protecting lives and properties of Cross Riverians. In fact, if Ayade was sleeping or junketing about signing MOUs, he must wake up and act now.

    About four to five months ago, I did an article with the title “Cross River : A Safe Haven For Criminals Under Ayade”, as usual, I got it hot from the naysayers who obviously are enemies of our dear state. I was vilified and threatened by overzealous Ayade’s supporters for stating the obvious.

    In the article, I faulted the inability of the government to subject political appointees to denouncement of membership of any cult group (A tradition adopted by the former administration) as part of the screening before appointment. Today, we’re reaping that dangerous seed we sown as a result gross negligence by the Governor.

    Even the appointments made after that article, the government still failed to do this very important aspect of screening. Today, we’re faced with a situation that’s threatening the entire unity of our dear state.

    Security is the primary responsibility of any government that’s why after the monthly allocation, there’s a special votes from the federal government to state governors for security. But has the current situation in Cross River reflected the security vote? The answer will be a big no!

    Instead of Governor Ayade’s administration to have conducted a proper security screening for appointees, he introduced a funny screening method of subjecting them to writing aptitude test like they were seeking admission into the university.

    Cross River is in dire need of a responsible and responsive government where cultism will never hold sway again in the state. If the number two man in the state is not safe, what then is the hope of the common man on the street? We have never had it this bad!

    The government must consult wide, organize a security summit where stakeholders across every sector should be invited to participate. Traditional rulers, heads of faith based organizations, heads of tertiary institutions in the state, youths leaders, leadership of political parties etc should all be invited to the meeting.

    Before then, Ayade should consider devolving the current State Executive Council like Akwa Ibom did yesterday to allow him constitute a council that would undergo proper security screening before appointment.

    Security agencies should also reduce the over concentration in urban areas because the robbery in rural areas too has been going on since the inception of this government unabated. In my village, my local church no longer have musical instruments due to armed robbery. It has been attacked two times in two months.

    This is not the Cross River that was once known as the most peaceful state in Nigeria. Calabar is no longer a city to come and rest. Ayade must do something to avoid destroying the tourism potentials of our state.

    Above all, the governor must effectively make use of the security votes. I don’t want to believe the insinuations that some government officials are making fortune from this situation. If Ayade has been sharing the security votes amongst his family members like he put the bailout fund under the control of his younger brother, Frank Ayade, the “powerful” co-governor, the time to release the money to the appropriate authorities to combat this ugly development is now.

    God bless Cross River!

  • Akparabong Crisis: Governor Ayade sues for Peace between warring communities

    Cross River State Governor, Professor Ben Ayade, has sue for peace between the people of Akparabong in Ikom local government area and their brethren of Bendeghe Ekem in Etung local government area of the state over the communal clashes. 

    The governor who remained the warring communities that what makes Cross River a unique and outstanding state is good neighbourliness, peaceful disposition and tendency to be a brothers Keeper. 
    Speaking through His Special Assistant on Peace and Reconciliation, Prince Charles Ushie, the state chief executive expressed his bitterness over the incident lamenting the action as un-Cross River. 
    Governor Ayade described the skirmish as embarrassing and unfortunate. In his word” how can brothers of the same ancestry, culture and language engage themselves in such a situation, killing, looting, and wanton destruction of properties and sources of their livelihood.
    The governor immediately called on the traditional rulers of the warring communities to ensure a speedy solution to the crisis. 
    Governor Ayade who felt pained by the ugly incident noted that this kind of incident contradict our hospitality and friendliness the people of Cross River State are known for. 
    He however promised to ensure that such ugly incident never happens again in the state while enjoining Cross Riverians to let live in peace for the overwhelming benefits of the state.

  • The Senselessness in the following Assumption and the rampage of Cross River State by Ifere Paul

    Miscreants paraded by Security personels in Calabar 

    By Ifere Paul 


    Why is it that Calabar has been taken over by bandits, kidnappers, cultists, undertakers, and armed robbers?

    Why is it that for more than one full months that Ben Ayade was galavanting in Abuja, when the Deputy Governor was in charge nothing like this took place?

    Why is it that of all government appointees, it is the convoy or the pilot vehicle of the Deputy Governor that must be attacked?

    These questions are for the Nigeria Police Force, DSS, and SSS that may be drawn in to investigate the matter.

    Is there a friction of relationship between the the legally elected governor and the illegal co-governor? Does the co-governor feels threatened by the new found love and responsibility that has been passed to the Deputy Governor?

    Does that has anything to do with the attack on the convoy and pilot vehicle of our deputy governor? Is there any iota of doubt that the Deputy Governor escaped an assassination attempt?

    Since the governor was welcomed into Calabar, there had been killings and maimings, and destruction of properties. Is there any slightest reasons to suspect that the governor may have directly or indirectly given an order to cause these destruction to enable him withdraw monies from the security votes?

    Mind you, the government has not issued a statement in the Usumutong and Ediba communal clashes were people were massacred. No statement up til now in the Akparabong and Bendeghe Ediem fights. Why has the government refused to issue a statement?

    I think that there was an assassination attempt on the life of the Deputy Governor of Cross River State.

    Government officials should be investigated. Close relations of the Governor must be probed. Their whereabouts as at the time of the crime, their phone conversation must be screened too.

    I’m not insinuating anything. I’m just thinking #CrossRiver.

  • Governor Ben Ayade demonising Cross River State by Ifere Paul

    By Ifere Paul 


    As his judgement day 9th December approaches, Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River State is swimming in the pool of the unknown. The Governor who was disowned by the PDP lawyer in the case of Ayade vs Joe Agi, the lawyer averred that the issues against the Governor as brought before the Supreme Court by Joe Agi were nothing but true. The lawyer went further to beg the apex court to adhere to the prayers of Joe Agi SAN. Saying that “the governor was not qualified to stand elections as he has broken the set down roles and regulations of the primaries of his party (PDP).

    The denial of a candidate or a governor standing trial by his Party through the party’s lawyer, is an aberration. This act alone will the substance that will influence any basis of Supreme Court judgement. Notwithstanding, the precedence of the case in the lower courts.

    It is in this light that the Governor Ben Ayade has become restless, sleepless, and utterly senseless.

    Governor Ben Ayade who hired crowds to welcome him at the airport also hired members of the Ogboni Fraternity who came to the airport with a coffin with an inscription “RIP JOE.”

    A video was made and even posted online for Cross Riverians in the Diaspora, Nigeria and the international community to watch. It is the first time in Cross River State nay Nigeria that a sitting executive governor will direct his appointees to pay for a hired crowds, groups, cultists, and demonic groups who moved around the city with a coffin chanting the death of Joe Agi SAN.

    It is a shame, that the governor will even allow a commissioner serving under him to make this assertions: “…that before December 9th, 2016, Joe Agi SAN who is out to become a governor through the back door, will be dead and buried before 9th December.”

    Quite unfortunately, Governor Ayade was there clapping and nodding his head like a lizard.

    Responding to my question how he felt of the actions of the governor parading a coffin with Joe Agi’s name on it, Chief Okoi Obono-obla retorted thus: “it is uncalled for, uncivilized, satanic, devilish, dehumanizing, unethical that a governor of a State like Cross River State will encourage devil worshipping and spiritual sacrifice. “Never in the in the history of Cross River State have we seen such display of clanishness and childishness.”

    In his own responds the Director General of Joe Agi Campaign Organisation, Ntufam Edet Asia described Governor Ayade “a child that must be shown the way out. He concluded that the speech by the commissioner does show the level of childishness in play in the government house”.

    John Ochala, the Acting APC summed it up that “Cross River State has never had it as bad as it is now. Where a governor will not pay salaries but will go all the way out to pay 3000 naira each to a crowd of thousand supporters at the airport.”

    “Governor Ayade craziness is second to none was the reply I got from Joseph Odok, who is one of the persons championing the social change discourse in the State.”

    One lady from Cross River State who does not want her name mentioned, submitted that “Ayade was supposed to be submissive to God. Humble with the highest humility rather than involving in a show of shame. I pray that the Supreme Court boot him out for such display of professional senselessness.”

    “You cannot eat your cake and have it at the same time” one respondant on Facebook submitted on Ifere’s platform.

    “The coffin thing is the lowest form of satanic and devil’s worship. The whole State needs deliverance. Parading a coffin along the streets of Calabar is ungodly and has spiritual consequences. This is like asking for the sacrifices of souls. Not just that of your assumed enemy. My church will be going on a three days fasting and praying to overcome such satanic spirit engagements in Cross River State”, one pastor Effiong Peter of Redeemed Christian such Calabar responded.

  • Venatius Ikem behind Coffin carried to welcome Gov Ayade?

    According to Liberate Cross-River, a social group based on the net, an investigations have revealed that All Progressives Congress, APC chieftain, Venatius Ikem was behind the shameful display by some miscreants who carried coffins to the airport to welcome Governor Ben Ayade on his arrival to the state .

    At the event to welcome the governor at the calabar airport, there was an open mass conducted by Reverend Father Patrick Ene-Eyo. It was a prayer session, which Ikem and likes have been unsuccessfully to tarnish.

    The investigation uncovered that their intention was to embarrass the government with the goal to score cheap political point.

    According to reliable sources, the whole episode had the hand print of Ikem, a former Peoples Democratic Party spokesman who decamped to the APC in his desperate bid to seek elective appointment.

    The sources revealed that it was not the first time Ikem had been involved in arranging miscreants to carry coffins at political events as a way of embarrassing his supposed adversaries.

    Ikem who has previously been fingered in cult related activities, was said to have arranged the coffin carrying incident to give the impression that it was the governor that arranged it to pass a message to his opponent.

    The APC chieftain had almost succeeded in creating the impression that the governor arranged the coffin carriers until the latest revelation which emerged that Ikem was indeed the brain behind the satanic act.

    Already tongues were already wagging that the governor carried out the act to send a message to his opponent ahead of the Supreme Court judgement on the Cross River governorship election.

    However, given the antecedent of Ikem who had in the past organized a similar action of carrying coffin in Obudu which he even buried.

    He is noted as a notorious cultist and is well known for stabbing somebody when he was Commissioner for works in the state.

    it would be recalled that this same character was shot on his leg for sleeping with somebody’s wife in obudu.

    Giving further insight on coffin incident, the sources said he did that just to discredit the Ayade government for the huge support Ayade enjoys among the indigenes of the state.

    See photo below…

  • NANS storms Turkish Embassy, Protest over the Victimisation of Nigerian students in Turkey

    Yesterday, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS stormed the Turkish Embassy in Abuja for peaceful protest over the maltreatment of Nigerian students in Turkey. 

    The protest was peaceful just as stated earlier as NANS President, Comrade Aruna Kadiri sent a message to the Higher Commissioner (Ambassador), stating that they must not continue to toil with the lives of Nigerian students and be continually victimised and intimidated while abroad. 
    Aruna said, “We have over 50 of Nigerian students in Turkey that they claimed they are terrorists and locked in a room, after a failed coup. 
    “They are treating our students like animals and feel there is no one to speak for them. And we wish you safe trip by to your destination”, Aruna added. 
    However, news has been flying all over the country concerning the locking of Nigerian Student(s) in the Turkish Republic. Meanwhile the Nigerian government has given deaf ears on that. Thanks to NANS for their prolific concern as they made it to the embassy to let the government know that Nigerians abroad are Nigerians at home. 
    Check out Photos of their peaceful demonstration below… 
    NANS President, Comrade Aruna Kadiri addressing Nigerian Students 

  • Cross Riverians question the whereabouts of Green Police

    By Inyali Peter 


    Five months after inauguration, Cross Riverians are yet to see any Green Police Officer apart from Governor Ben Ayade. Could it be that the governor inaugurated himself alone and deceived others? 
    Governor Ben Ayade during the inauguration of the Cross River State Green Police 
    I was contacted by one of the supposed Green Police officers today complaining that he and many others are very disappointed that five months after, they have not received a dine and have no job description.

    In his words: “Good evening sir. My name is… (Withheld). I am calling you because I have read a lot of your articles on Facebook and you have convinced me that you’re a concerned Cross Riverian.

    “Sir, this is almost five months since our inauguration as Green Police but as I speak, I have not received a dine from government and no job to do. The governor inaugurated us and abandoned us. If you know what I personally went through during the screening, you won’t believe. Oga please write something about this so that even if the governor has forgotten about it, he will remember”.

    Well, I honestly sympathise with him and others who were hoodwinked by Governor Ayade to believe the mirage of the Green Police propaganda.

    I would have loved to write explicitly about this but this is not really the best of times for our dear governor. What is running through him now is the likely outcome of December 9th Supreme Court verdict on the perjury suit filed against him by Joe Agi, SAN.

    So my brother, I strongly advised you to engage yourself in more useful venture and forget about the deceit of Ayade in the form of Green Police. We may never have another officer apart from the governor himself.

  • Fulani Herdsmen now grazing inside Calabar metropolis (Photos)

    Fulani Herdsmen seen by Calabar Reporters grazing at Parliamentary, Calabar, Cross River State. 

    It seems things are getting different in this current administration, definitely you know what we mean. It has never occurred before now, but why now? Is what we’re asking.

    If we can recalled, on the month of June, 2016, the Cross River State House of Assembly (CRSHA) rejected the Grazing Commission Bill been proposed by the National Assembly.

    Read Also | Grazing Bill: Cross River House Of Assembly Rejects The Grazing Commission Bill

    The report read that the state government in a response through the Special Assistant to the Governor on Non-Indigenes and Muslims Affairs, Alhaji Abdulkarim Adam, said that the government has requested the herdsmen to ensure that they promptly report the entrance of any new set of herdsmen into the state to avoid infiltration and breach of security and assured that once they comply, government will consider their request.

    But the State House of Assembly totally rejected the idea insisting that even if the National Assembly passes the grazing commission bill into law, it will not be domesticated in Cross River state.

    But, seeing Herdsmen with their cattle grazing through the city of Calabar, from 8 Miles, Parliamentary, Ikorinim, down to Eta-Agbor to Satellite Town, University of Calabar, University of Calabar Teaching Hospital, is what we’re amazed of. Does it mean that, the law didn’t stand? We mean, the rejection of the Grazing Bill by the CRSHA.

    Read Also | Fulani Herdsmen shoots one, scare many as they plan to disrupt Ogoja New Yam Festival


    Well, to say, the safety of Cross Riverians should be a priority to any good governance. You can’t expose the people you’re governing to danger, especially this dreaded bloodsuckers called the Fulani militants. What they’ve done in other states should set an exemplary stand for any body.

    Not to go too far, on the 14th of September, 2016, Calabar Reporters reported a case of herdsmen shootings and their plans to disrupt the Ogoja New Yam Festival in which – if not for God…

    Read Also | Fulani Herdsmen Begs Governor Ayade To Allocate Grazing Land For Their Cattle


    Meanwhile, in recent times, the Fulani herdsmen in Cross River State had begged the state Governor, Senator Ben Ayade to allocate grazing land for their cattle.

    The Leader of the Hausa/Fulani community in the state, Mr. Sani Baba – Gombe, who made the passionate appeal in Calabar, the state capital, explained that the major challenge facing herdsmen in the state was a grazing land, hence the need for the state government to come to their aid.

    According to Baba-Gombe, the land if allocated will put an end to the crisis between farmers/herdsmen in the state, adding that it would also stop herdsmen from encroaching into people’s farmlands in search of food for their animals.

    If you are requesting for something from someone, won’t you wait for the person’s response? Patiently? But the step taken by the herdsmen now shows they’re not willing to comply even if the land is given to them for grazing.

  • Nigerian Army retaliates the killing of soldiers in Bakassi by killing 8 militants

    Militants killed by Nigerian Army in Bakassi 

    At the early hours of Friday, 30th September, 2016, troops from the 13 Brigade of the Nigerian Army Calabar, repelled an attack on its soldiers and killed about 8 armed militants at Efut Esighi in Bakassi local government area of Cross River.

    Capt. Kayode Owolabi, Public Relations Officer (PRO) for 13 Brigade who disclosed this to newsmen on this morning in Calabar, said that the militants attacked the Army post in Efut Esighi.

    Owolabi said the militants were `boys’ of the most wanted militant leader in the area, Mr. Benjamin Ene a.k.a ‘G1’ who have been on the wanted list of security agencies in the state.

    “The very determined troops from the 13 Brigade and Operation Delta Safe repelled an attack from armed militants at Efut Esighi in Bakassi local government.

    “The militants tried to attack the Army post in Efut Esighi. Some of them were wearing Nigerian military camouflage.

    “We recovered 250 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition, rocket propelled gun launcher, GPMG belt links and various charms on their bodies. Other militants escaped with very serious gun shots injuries.

    “There was no casualty on the side of the military. Our men were in full combat during the attack. We have also destroyed their camps and shrines in the creeks.”, he said.

    According to CrossRiverWatch, Captain Owolabi added that the 13 Brigade Commander, Brig. Gen. Bulama Biu, had warned that no militant group or criminal under any guise would be spared.

    He further said that the military and other security agencies will continue to hunt down any militant group or criminal that does not surrender.

    He however, called on residents in the state to always avail them of useful and timely information that would assist them curb crime.

    It will be recalled that on September 24, the Director of Army Public Relations, Col. Sani Usman, confirmed that militants killed one soldier at the same spot (Efut Esighi) where another attack was repelled today.