Calabar residents declare war against pick pocket... Chase one into Canal

There was a long traffic snarl as a huge crowd gathered along Atekong by Murtala Mohammed expressway junction in Calabar to watch a suspected pick pocket who jumped into the big drainage at the junction following a hot chase by residents after stealing from a passenger who was in the same public taxi with him.

CrossRiverWatch gathered from eye witness that the unidentified thief boarded the same taxi with an unsuspecting passenger who just withdrew money from a bank.

After successfully robbing his co-passenger, he was said to have jumped out of the moving taxi and attempted to run “but was accosted by residents who gave him a hot chase, caught him and unleash very serious beating on him”.

Sensing serious danger on approaching the canal around the Atekong junction, the suspected thief was said to have jumped into the deep canal and must have sustained very serious injuries.

When CrossRiverWatch visited the scene of the incident, his body was seen lying in his pool of blood in the canal.

Most of the crowd that gathered at the scene maintained that he was feigning death so he could escape when the crowd
is dispersed and kept hauling stones at the body inside the canal.

Intermittently, he made movements that indicated he was helpless and in pain.

Security operatives including the Civil Defence and Traffic Wardens were sighted at the scene but it was not immediately clear whether they came to offer help to the victim or were just part of the viewers.

As at the time of filing this report, several calls to the State Police spokesman, Hogan Bassey were not picked.

It will be recalled that there has been several incidences of pick pocket at that particular spot within the last two months. The last one saw residents vandalizing and burning a vehicle with the charred remains still littering the scene.

Some of the eyewitness who spokes to CrossRiverWatch called on the police to step up surveillance around that spot to forestall a recurrence.

An eye witness, Eyo Clement said “the police should beef up their surveillance in that place as the situation is becoming rampant.”

Idongesit Akpan told our reporter that her brother “was a recent victim of pick pocketers who have relocated from Lagos, Port Harcourt and Onithsa to Calabar due to influx of people into Cross River during this December.”