From JUDEX OKORO, Calabar

As part of the state government’s effort at ensuring peace and security, the Director General of Cross River Border Communities Development Commission, Mr Leo Aggrey, has said the commission has concluded arrangements to hand over eight police stations to the state police command.

Aggrey made the disclosure in an interaction with journalists in Calabar, saying that this was part of the commitments to partner with security agencies in fighting crime within border communities.

He said: “I have just finished a memo to the Commissioner of Police for the commissioning of eight police stations by the commissioner for security of lives and property from the North down to the Southern Senatorial district of the state.

“We are trying to ensure that security is maintained in our eight border communities, particularly the flash points where perennial communal and interstate boundary clashes usually occur.’’

On the border skirmishes, he said inter-state border clashes have drastically reduced to about 75 per cent since the intervention of the commission, adding that the only recent occurrence was in Ikwo community of Ebonyi and Adadama communities of Cross River.

“But both state governments and the National Boundary Commission have been trying to ensure that peace returned to the areas,” he said.

The director general urged the two warring communities to refrain from fighting, adding that crisis does nobody any good.

He said: “God knows why he brought Cross River and Ebonyi to be neighbours. So, they just have to fashion out a peaceful way of living together.

“The police station we built in Adadama was destroyed during the crisis but we have rebuilt it. I plead that the warring communities should allow law enforcement agents to maintain law and order in the area.’’


Source: Sun