Since the beginning of 2014, criminals have been on the onslaught in Cross River State especially in Calabar, the state capital, attacking and dispossessing residents of money and valuables.
Reports of
nocturnal visits by criminals particularly, in Calabar South neighbourhoods
have become a recurring decimal. As a result of this ugly development, many
residents have been forced to form vigilante groups to take over the security
of their streets and neighbourhood. And as expected, when security is in the
hands of people who are not trained in security issues, extra-judicial killings
and jungle justice becomes the order of the day, and that is what is happening
in Calabar currently.
In the past few weeks,
in an effort to protect themselves, angry mobs and vigilante groups have
apprehended and lynched over 20 criminals. The year opened with the lynching of
two female robbery suspects and their male accomplice who attempted to snatch
N1.5 million from a woman.The robbery suspects said to be undergraduates and
their male partner were battered and stripped naked at Murtala Mohammed
Highway/ Atekong Drive and before the police arrived, the young man who was
inflicted with a deep machete cut on his forehead had died. The gulf car they
used was set ablaze and pushed into a drainage.The gang reportedly ambushed the
businesswoman who had gone to withdraw N1.5 million at a bank along Calabar
Road, near the Watt market, where they approached her to join their cab. The
woman who appeared eager to arrive home because of the money she had withdrawn,
immediately accepted and boarded the taxi.
Trouble started
as she got to her destination only to discover that the taxi driver became
unwilling to allow her alight from the vehicle. Subsequently, the bandits
reportedly brought out a gun and ordered her to cooperate with them if she did
not want to get hurt. “They told me to co-operate with them and quietly hand
over the N1.5 million or I would be killed; Suddenly, I became angry in my
spirit because this money is contribution money and my members would not
believe me that the money was stolen.
So, I was ready
to die and I began to raise alarm. ”In a related development, on Monday,
February 10, 2014, two robbery suspects were butchered along Mayne Avenue/Atu/
Marian roundabout and their operational vehicle, a Volkswagen Vento car set
ablaze about 10am. An eye witness who gave his name as Asuquo narrated to Crime
Guard how the thieves, operating in a Vento car as taxi, picked up a lady who
had just collected some money at a new generation bank along Murtala Highway.
“The lady was
going to Goldie, so they took her through Target and when they got close to
this place, they snatched her bag and pushed the woman out. She started screaming
and luckily, some cars that were passing blocked their car and the thieves were
trapped.” He said when the thieves saw that they had been trapped, they simply
wound their car glasses and remained inside because the place is a busy
roundabout and an attempt to escape would have been fruitless. So, they simply
remained inside the car. “I used my hand and broke open the car glasses and
dragged out the boys and some people came with machetes.”The thieves, Asuquo
narrated, were inflicted severe cuts before the arrival of a team of policemen
from the Atakpa Police Division and they taken into custody. In the same vein,
another suspected criminal was also killed along Okpo Ene Street and his corpse
dumped at Abasi Obori market.
The suspect, said
to be a member of a three -man gang was said to have rented a taxi on charter.
When they got to Okpene /Mayne Avenue, they ransacked the vehicle and robbed
the driver. ‘The driver raised alarm and some people went after them and one of
them was caught and lynched,” he stated.*Lynched suspect Also at Anantigha, two
suspected robbers operating in a tricycle popularly known as keke NAPEP were
killed and their tricycle set ablaze by angry mob. Earlier in the week, another
suspected notorious criminal was apprehended by members of the vigilante along
Uwanse Street and when he was about to be lynched, he pleaded that his life
should be spared so that he would take the police to the hideout of his gang.
“That night, he led a team of SARS to their hideout and four other suspects and
their weapons were apprehended by the police. A resident of Uwanse, Mr. Akpan
Udo-Ekpo told Crime Guard that they decided to confront the criminals since the
number of hoodlums has increased tremendously in the city.
“These boys have
become too many and the police cannot be everywhere, so we have to combat them
ourselves if we must live in peace in this city, ”he said.Mr. Udo-Ekpo said
before now, they used to apprehend criminals and hand them over to the police
but such hoodlums later find their way out and return to terrorize people.
Another resident, Moses Etim said they decided to form vigilante groups to
tackle the high crime rate in the area to protect themselves.“We formed
vigilante to protect ourselves from these criminals and we will continue to do
so until we have peace. ”Mr Hogan Bassey, the spokesman of the Cross River
State Police Command said the police were aware of the several incidents of
jungle justice and advised residents to report cases of attack to the police
and not take laws into their hands. “We are aware of these cases; you know
incidents of ‘one chance’ robbery have become rampant in this city and we are
not resting in our efforts to make the city crime free.”
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