Residents of Calabar, Cross River, have expressed concern over the annual Calabar carnival following the insecurity situation in the city.

The residents particularly expressed fear that kidnappings in the capital city would take the shine off the annual carnival scheduled to commence on December 1.

In separate reactions to the situation, the citizens, however, urged the government and security agencies to step up efforts at securing the state.

The residents have been frequently faced with cases of kidnappings. Members of the various professions, including medical practitioners, lawyers, clerics, academicians and other high profile personalities have been targets of kidnappers of recent.

The Nigerian Medical Association recently called off a 40-day protest over the abduction of one of their colleagues, Prof. Ekanem Ephraim, seized from her medical facility in Calabar. They described her abduction as one too many.

The chapter chairman of the association, Dr Felix Archibong, lamented that 115 days after her abduction, the professor and neurologist had yet to be released.

He attributed the reason for calling off the strike to the appeal made by Governor Bassey Otu for the association to consider the innocent citizens who have been made to suffer unjustly.

However, Mr Archibong said it was regrettable that security agencies and the state government had not been able to secure her release after several promises made to that effect.

Saying the state had become uninhabitable due to the activities of kidnappers, Mr Archibong said several others, including medical personnel, have suffered the same fate as Empraim.

“This is the situation in the state and it is regrettable that our colleague is still in captivity after 115 days. We are trying so hard not to make industrial action another alternative to getting the government and security agencies to keep to their promises,” he stated.

A resident, Mr Abel Achor, attributed the reason for the increase in the cases of abduction to hunger and called on the government to create the necessary environment for businesses to thrive.

“My stand is that if the government cannot provide the needed jobs for the unemployed, they should at least ensure an environment for businesses to thrive,” Achor said.

Another resident, Mr Emmanuel Owan, who described the security challenge as unfortunate, feared that it posed danger for investors coming into the state.

He said the carnival would be the first casualty of the security challenge in the state.

According to him, “This challenge is in the public domain and will definitely take the shine off the coming carnival. You see how widely the abduction of the Director of Servicom in the University of Calabar was reported on Sunday.

“I think the state government, in collaboration with the security agencies, need to step up their game before the yuletide.”

The Chairman of Inter-Party Advisory Council in Cross River, Mr Anthony Attah, called on the governor to do more in the area of security than just promising to arrest culprits.

“The government needs to do much more than promising to arrest the culprits and condemning the act. Beyond what is reported at the state capital and its environs, the level of kidnapping going on in the rural areas is an unmitigated catastrophe,” he stated.

Meanwhile, the government and the police have constantly assured that everything was being done to tackle the security challenges.

The governor had during the swearing in of 31 commissioners, warned kidnappers to desist from abducting residents of the state.

Mr Otu, who said that his administration had procured technology to curb the menace, said, “Enough is enough.”

The governor, who directed security agencies to arrest and prosecute criminals in line with extant laws of the state, announced a reward for any useful information that would curb kidnapping in the state.

He said his government would continue to display zero tolerance for kidnapping, cultism and armed robbery, and that it explained why he announced N5 million bounties for credible information on kidnapping.

“The technology can detect the whereabouts of kidnappers. I had earlier granted the criminals amnesty. Only a handful came out to surrender their guns. I am not taking anything for granted. I have decided to go all out for them. If they won’t allow others to live in peace, they, too, won’t.

“They live amongst us. And so, the people must help to volunteer information about them,” he appealed.

The state Commissioner of Police, Gyogon Grimah, who said some suspects had been arrested in connection with kidnapping in the state, reiterated his resolve to rid the state of crimes and criminalities

.(NAN)