Recently, Calabar metropolis and its residents were, for the first time, enveloped in a carnival of panic caused by the kidnap of Pastor Seyi Adekunle of Winners Chapel and ceaseless air raids steered by gunshots and roaming military jets.
The kidnap was not unusual, but the air raid caused trembling, with residents reminded of the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East.
The air raid occurred in a combat between marine police and sea pirates around one of the city’s coastal suburbs.
Residents kept a fear-gripping wake-keeping while the bangs and booms lasted.
Nationwide, the probability of security personnel curbing crime or probably stopping it is hard, with the crime rate rising and falling like a fluctuating science graph plotted by a student who merely knows what he is told to do.
Fadairo’s game changer
But in Cross River, since the arrival of the Commissioner of Police, Henry Fadairo, press releases on the routing of crime has increased.
This comes with the police not taking chances with nefarious activities fanned by alleged cult members who make a ritual of attacking even innocent people; armed robbers who make car snatching a profession; ATM snipers a whiff in the fray, kidnappers who butcher human beings into parts, with heads, tongues, private parts, and eyes unplugged and severed.
The combat with pirates would have ended in grave calamity but for the quick intervention of the police.
With it came the release of Adekunle without harm. His abductors were captured.
Parade of bandits
During a parade of alleged bandits – each with varying crime tags – Police Public Relations Officer, Hogan Bassey, said the command is at war “with all those troubling the peace of good citizens. Since they have made themselves bad citizens so we are not going to spare them.”
Cult related activities rank highest with record casualties. This comes with the vogue of ‘street base cultism’ especially in the Calabar South area, where clashes among rival gangs is the norm, with scores of deaths.
On one rescue mission, the police encountered a fire fight with cult members who were already in brawl. One of the cult members was killed.
The police arrested a number of them, and recovered weapons of varying grades as well as 11 passes from a 300 level student of the University of Calabar, Micheal Aka, who allegedly issued passes to members for a fee.
Involvement of entire household
Another incident allegedly involved the entire household of one Bassey Etim, 62, in criminal activities.
The police said Asuqou used his home to mobilise hoodlums who engaged in crime around his Anatigha area, in the southern part of Calabar.
About 15 members of the household, including Etim, were arrested by the police.
In yet another incident, a husband and wife, Chukwu and Happiness Okoro, allegedly robbed one Henry Donald of N600,000.
They allegedly disguised as car operators in their Volkswagen Golf car marked GWA 856 AW, picked Donald up, robbed, and pushed him out while in motion.
Bassey said though there is a remarkable reduction crime, members of the public need to do more by providing useful information and cooperating with the police.
