By Jonathan Ugbal
The Cross River state House of Assembly has said it is willing to listen to the inputs of everyone as it seeks to strengthen legislations to tackle the rising spate of insecurity.
The Speaker, Eteng Jones (PDP Yakurr 2) stated this while addressing attendees of a presentation and validation meeting of “The Reports on Insecurity in the South-South States: Issues, Actors and Solutions,” by tue Niger Delta Dialogue where he said he sometimes wonders if “it is a curse to come from here (Niger Delta).”
“I have told my team, we must come up with a legislation that is all encompassing. We must come up with a legislation that is for today and tomorrow. We can’t pass a law that is for today and tomorrow we need another one tomorrow,” he said.
On the inputs to these legislations, Mr. Eteng who said that, “security is not the responsibility of the police alone, security is our collective responsibility,” disclosed that the Assembly will “welcome your inputs,” as for over a decade, the Niger Delta region residents have not slept with both eyes closed.
Cross River, according to the report, has witnessed an upsurge in crime rate and had the highest fatalities in the year 2017. Cultism, kidnapping and armed robberies formed the bulk of these fatalities.
And, lamenting that cultism was now the bane of the youths, Mr. Eteng said that: “Everyday we hear of kidnapping, armed robbery and cultism and yet we send our children to school. Imagine sending your child to school and on graduation day, he is killed. Imagine the pain, imagine the resources wasted.”