The Cross River State Government has read out the riot act to militants who refuse to handover weapons and surrendered themselves for amnesty.
Mr Ani Esin, the Security Adviser to the state governor, Ben Ayade, disclosed this to DAILY POST in Calabar on Tuesday while the registration of ex-militants was ongoing in the state.
Esin said, “Cross River State Government will make sure that the ex-militants who surrendered their weapons of mass destruction are rewarded and the weapons would not be allowed to go into the wrong hands any longer.
“But, for those who had refused to come out and hand over the weapons would have themselves to blame. We will chase them out of the state, the state would not be conducive or haven for them to resides any longer.
“Those who harbour them (militants) would be dealt with severely and we will make sure that those creeks identified and others yet to be indentified would be destroyed and they would not be adequate for any militant to leave,” he said.
The State Security Adviser noted that government had been on the amnesty issue for long. “The government had been on the issue of amnesty for a long time now with the Bakassi strike force and by God’s willing; it has come to fruition now.
“We are sure that these weapons mopped up now will not go into the wrong hands again. As you can see, for two weeks now, the security of the state had been very intensive, from arm robberies that were stopped, kidnapping prevented in several areas, the hit would have been more intensive.
“We have been able to prevent break down of law and order, crime rates have been reduced drastically. We are working tirelessly, 20/7 to ensure that we do our best to get the best out of a very bad situation particularly in this period of economy recession in Nigeria.”
He pointed out that the government was trying to bring out a framework that would forestall recurrence of crimes in the state, “We are trying to bring out a frame work whereby everybody has to say something in his/her areas, that we can have a pre-advance information before crime happened.
“Once you see negative thing in your area, negative people coming in, you suspect certain movement, please don’t fail to call the police or any security operatives, we have kept the security operatives on red alert to make sure that people have a successful Christmas and Calabar Carnival.
“After the Christmas period, we shall be going into the general elections, all these call for adequate security, hence we have to work very hard to ensure that we have trusted security line up
“Governor Ben Ayade has empowered me adequately, to make sure that the state is safe for visitors and investors who come in for Christmas and Carnival have zero crime rates,” he stated.
He called on people to be peaceful, stressing that, “Parents should warn their wards of negative activities in the society. Land Lord should look at who their tenants are, tenants should look at themselves who is coming into the compound. We assure Nigerians of violence free Christmas and Calabar carnival.”
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