Members of Tech and Gadget Resellers Union in Cross River State have staged a peaceful protest in Calabar against the high rate of robberies.
The resellers say they have collectively lost over N700m  to various robbery incidents within the metropolis in the last one year.
Some of the protesters carried placards with inscriptions like, “businesses cannot function in an unsafe environment,” “my prince, our gadget shops are shutting down,” “phones and gadget shops are shutting down”.
Others read, ” there are no patrol teams in the city of Calabar from 3 am to 6 am, so criminals have an easy ride on us”.
One of the protesters, Paschal Obi put the losses at over 700 million naira saying they no longer feel safe.
“So many of my colleagues have suffered enormous losses due to burglaries and robbers .
“Over 700 million naira has been lost by all the shops collectively and this is quite huge.
“These amounts largely come from bank loans so the government should come to our aid by providing security,” he said.
Also speaking, George Nwosu, the CEO of George Gadgets said his shop was burgled twice last year on 1st and 3rd of January.
He said the matter was reported to the police and nothing has come out of it yet. He decried the poor level of security in the metropolis and called for government aid.
On his part, Okoro Benjamin said two of his shops were burgled on the 10th and 11th of December last year and he lost goods worth over 400 million naira.
He also pleaded for help in terms of security because most of them are running out of business and have nothing to do.
When contacted, SP Irene Ugbo, the Cross River State Police Public Relations Officer said the command is investigating the robberies and will surely get the robbers
She also disclosed that as a temporary measure, the command will put an eye along that axis of the metropolis and keep a stationary patrol team along the area for improved security.
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