The Police and the entire security apparatus in Calabar, the Cross River state capital, are still at a loss over how to handle the recent invasion of the serene Peoples Paradise by men suspected to be ritual killers who have mysteriously already snatched or stolen more than 20 kids in Calabar metropolis within two months.
Speaking to Blueprint on the issue, spokesman for Cross River state Police Command, ASP Hogan Bassey, said the Police were determined to unravel the kidnapping syndicates terrorising Calabar residents, stealing and snatching children between the ages of four and seven, allegedly for ritual purposes.
Bassey, therefore, appealed to members of the public to give information to law enforcements agents on suspicious character and movement in their vicinity adding, “Police cannot be everywhere; members of the public should volunteer information on those they suspect to be the brain behind abductions in the state.”
Also, disturbed by the incessant bad tales of missing kids, the House of Assembly last week passed a motion compelling “relevant government agencies to sensitize members of the public against falling prey to reported cases of abductions of children.”
On his part, the State Security Adviser, Mr Rekpene Bassey, said the rate by which children were missing were alarming, but explained that the modus operandi of the abductors were that “they would position themselves in busy areas to watch out for parents who park cars with children inside, and then steal the unsuspected kids,” and warned against leaving children inside packed vehicles.
In other cases, he said, the thieves abduct children playing outside their residences. Others are snatched while on errand or on the way to or from school. “And in some daring cases, the abductors snatch kids from parents directly while pretending to offer them help,” he said.
