A group, Niger Delta Dialogue, has blamed incidences of militancy, kidnapping, armed robbery and cultism in Cross River state on negligence of the displaced Bakassi people, connivance of bad eggs in the security architecture, increased number of street children leading to drugs abuse, amongst many others.
The group stated this in Calabar during a one-day security seminar.
In its recommendation, the group called for institutional reforms, capacity building of security agents as well as implementation of all existing laws on security if the state must reclaim its lost glory as the most peaceful state in the country.
“The Cross River state Ministry of Social Welfare should immediately commence a process of documenting street kids in the state, and ensuring that they are returned to homes and fully rehabilitated.”
To tackle communal conflicts, it urged the state government to partner with the National Boundary Commission, adding that relevant partners should ensure urgent mapping and delineation of contested boundaries where they exist.
In a presentation titled, ‘Insecurity in the South South States: Issues, Actors, Solutions,’ University of Calabar Don, Dr Neji Ndifon, said insecurity could be reduced drastically if the political leaders would muster the will and courage to tackle it head-long.
He advised that “the state and federal governments should immediately revisit the Green Tree Agreement and other commitment to the protection, resettlement and rehabilitation of the people of Bakassi. The federal government must intensify efforts to reduce illicit small arms and light weapons in the Gulf of Guineas which now also fuel criminality in Cross River.”
The executive director, Social Studies and Development, in his remarks, said, “In creating their own support system to survive, the street children band together, scavenging or begging for their sustenance, morphed into criminal gangs, sometimes linked with larger and more lethal gangs of adults that rob, rape, kidnap, and perpetrate political violence and prostitution.”
