Angry Traders Lockdown Economic Activities In Calabar
- Tasks Gov Ayade on insecurity, kidnapping
BY UBON EKANEM, CALABAR – Economic activities in Calabar, capital of Cross River came to a standstill on Monday, June 22, 2020 as traders of the South East zone extraction shut their shops and business premises to protest against incessant kidnapping of their members in the State.
They are therefore calling on Governor Ben Ayade and all security agencies to step up their game and spare no efforts at securing the lives and property of business owners, especially traders, in the South South state.
Most of the shops affected by the protest are those warehousing and dealing on electronic; motor spare parts; mobile phones and their accessories; Chemists and Pharmaceuticals; as well as supermarkets and fashion wears.
However, our correspondent noted that shops operating within the popular Watt and Marian Markets were not affected by the Traders’ mass action.
Also, prominent among the notices pasted on the gates and entrances of most shops read: “Security attention, Calabar has become a safe haven for kidnappers and armed robbers as their easy target is our members” signed Calabar Traders.
A visit to the popular Bedwell Street Motor spare parts shops, and other locations along Goldie Street, Target Street, Marian Road, MCC, Calabar Road and Etta-Agbor, revealed the traders’ pains as most of them were seen in clusters discussing the disturbing situation.
Interestingly, observing the COVID-19 protocols of using face mask and social distancing, the aggrieved traders told Forefront that their action is to alert the State Government and also draw the security agencies’ attention to their plight which continues to worsen by the day.
Narrating their plight to Forefront, a major provision store owner at the popular Etim-Edem Park, Chief Emeka Ndubuisi, lamented that the current wave of kidnapping in the state is an ill wind that blows nobody any good as it is capable of further worsening the biting poverty in the State.
He said it has become imperative for all other business owners to not only show concern but also unite to condemn with one voice the spiralling wave of crime in the once serene Calabar and its environs.
Chief Ndubusi warned that anything to the contrary could see the situation deteriorating further as the kidnappers may, in battling to keep the sources of their illicit income flowing, shift attention to petty traders, irrespective of whatever proceeds they generate as income from their wares
He said the traders were saddened by the fact that of their three members that are still in the kidnappers’ den, one has reportedly died of health complications while negotiations were still on-going for the ransom to be paid
According to him, their public protest is to tell the world that the State, which hitherto prided itself as the most peaceful and welcoming place to stay and carry out business, is no longer safe and now presents a shadow of its old self
He appealed to the state government to introduce security measures that would help check the criminal activities of hoodlums and once again make the state a peaceful place for all Nigerians to to live and transact productive businesses.
For now, mum seems to be the reaction from the Cross River State government with no statement on the traders’ action coming from any official quarter.
Efforts to get government’s reaction were unsuccessful as calls to the mobile lines of the Special Adviser on Security to the Government, Southern Senatorial District, Ani Esin, failed to connect.
