Akamkpa Royal Father Seeks Govt. Assistance to Fight Community Crimes

By: Onyi Ogar 

The village and clan head of Akamkpa town in Cross River, His Royal Highness, Ntufam Barr. Paul Ogar has said that the high rate of crimes which crept into the quiet community some years ago due to development has been reduced drastically owing to his effort and vigilante engaged. 

Ntufam Ogar has also appealed to the Cross River State government to recognize and appreciate the services rendered by the voluntary vigilante security outfit group in the community.

Hear him “we know that development comes with high rate of crimes. However, in this area we have tried to reduce the high rate of crimes in the community. It is not easy because this community was before now flourishing and suddenly went down because of the poor prevailing economy situation in the country. Everything is now bad. I brought in two different vigilante groups into the community, the uniform and village vigilantes. The recognized ones are those having uniform known to government officials and those securing the community locally”. 

The royal father also said that what was responsible for the high crime in the community was as a result of the folding up of the quarry firms in the area due to over taxation by government. Ntufam Ogar explained that as a result of the heavy taxation, many companies had to fold up causing unemployment in the area. According to him, the resultant effect is the high rate of crimes and criminality. 

“We are not finding it easy because it requires money to take care of this vigilante group and to take care of the youths because of the companies that are folding up. The companies are complaining of over taxation by government. I want the government to recognized these vigilante groups and pay them little amount of money. Crime cannot be eradicated completely but it is gradually dying down”.

On the recent concluded voter’s registration exercise he said, “You know we are government servants. Government told us to sensitize the community, I sent people into the communities to tell the inhabitants of the need for the registration. We spent so much money on the exercise. The turnout of the registration exercise was impressive due to the sensitization and enlightenment campaign in the community”.

“I advised my subjects and the politicians not to cause problem in the community. I told them that politics is not a do or die affairs and that if a particular candidate is defeated during the elections he should congratulate the winner and accept defeat.

The clan head appealed to government to address the issue of high taxation to enable the quarry companies return back to sites and resume work for the contribution and development of the community to flourish. According to him the rate of poverty is high in our country. 

Published in maiden edition, Lens Newspapers Vol. 1 No. 14.