Ayade Writes Buhari Over State of Insecurity in Cross River

 

The Cross River State Governor, Professor  Ben Ayade, on Friday disclosed that he has written to President Muhammadu Buhari for  help in tackling the rising tide of insecurity in the state, especially its capital, Calabar, and the surrounding communities.

Ayade, who made the announcement while briefing journalists on the security situation in the state, also said his administration has rolled out immediate security measures to provide safety for lives and property of the people in every part of the state.

He blamed the increasing criminal activities in the state to the non-extension of the operations of the new security outfit for the Niger Delta region, “Operation Delta Safe” to the state after the Federal Government scrapped “Operation Pulo Shield.”

Ayade, who was flanked by service commanders that accompanied him to the venue of the meeting shortly after they held a security council meeting with him, said: “We have done a detailed research. It is very obvious and very clearly too that the existence of Operation Pulo Shield which was to provide security for the Niger Delta which underwent a lot of restructuring and in more recent times replaced with Operation Delta Safe. The Operation Delta Safe as it were focused more on the oil pipelines and protection of states that have oil pipelines, so it started in Akwa Ibom and ended in Delta State. Therefore the federal security might that precipitated on those core Niger Delta areas, made Cross River and Calabar a safe haven for these criminals. And that is why in recent past, we have had these reported incidents.

“Obviously, with the detailed analysis of the service commanders, it became very clear that we needed an emergency SOS report to the President to plead that Operation Delta Safe must be extended to cover Cross River State, otherwise Cross River would be a lone state, standing alone without security cover, while the Niger Delta is covered by Operation Delta Safe.”

Ayade identified also mentioned unemployement and the infiltration of the state by non-indigenous persons as other contributors to increase in crime wave in the state.

“The second and major challenge is the great issue on unemployment and the challenge of young men and women conniving with people who are not Indigenes of this state to harbour this criminals. “From our security reports, we have arrested 47 people so far ,and of these, none is a Cross Riverian. And that gives me good news that the culture, the heritage, character, integrity and honour of the people of this state has not changed; but the massive infiltration of the state by non-indigenes,”Ayade said.

However, Ayade said the state has adopted some immediate measures to restore the normally to the states security situation.