Cross River Has One Percent Crime Rate - Ayade

By Our Correspondent

Cross River State governor, Senator Ben Ayade has disclosed that his state remains the safest in Nigeria, with crime rate at 1.1 percent.

Ayade made the disclosure, Monday, during a courtesy call on him by the new Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Zone 6, Musa Kimo, at his Conference Room, Governor’s Office, Calabar.

The governor reaffirmed the commitment of his administration to synergizing with the Police Force in the Zone to keep the crime rate in the state at the barest minimum.

He noted that “the people of the state remain committed to peace and security as evident in the statistics which project the state to represent 1.1 percent of total crime in Nigeria and the least in terms of crime in the country.”

While lauding the effort of the command in tackling crime in the state, Ayade said: “Recently, our city and state has been bedeviled by miscreants, a few community clashes, intra and interstate crisis and I know you have always been there for us,” adding that “I am proud of the new Commissioner of Police in our state who is also very quick and responsive to our challenges.”

Describing the new AIG as a disciplined, committed and god-fearing officer, the governor prayed God to guide and protect him in his endeavour, stressing that “we will continue to synergize and support the police to have a better and more peaceful society.”

Earlier, the new AIG had called on Governor Ayade and the people of Cross River to continue to partner with the police in a bid to ensure peace and tranquility in the state.

“It is my intention and that of my men to ensure that we actualize our potentials to succeed in protecting lives and property, but sadly we cannot succeed in doing that without the continued support of the governor, government and responsible people of Cross River,” he intimated.

Kimo who is the 26th AIG in the zone said the visit was an opportunity to plead with the governor and the people of the state “to abide with us as we abide with you so that we can succeed in ensuring that crime is reduced to the barest minimum in Cross River.”

The new AIG disclosed the existence of a potent crime prevention, detection and control strategy tagged, ‘Puff Adder,’ which he admitted, “is a brain child of the Inspector General of Police and has proven to be successful in most of the states of the federation.”

Explaining that all commands under his watch have launched the operation which is an intelligence driven policy cum community engagement, Kimo maintained that “such potentialities can only be actualized with the understanding, cooperation and collaboration of the digital Chief security officer of the state, Governor Ayade.”