Fun seekers in the
early hours of Monday scampered to safety after armed robbers stormed Calabar
Christmas Village while a popular musician, Kiss Daniel, was performing.
The robbers, whose
numbers could not be ascertained, stormed the village at about 1am and shot
repeatedly into the air while dispossessing people of their valuables.
It could not be
confirmed if anyone was killed in the incident, but it was learnt that several
people were stabbed.
It was learnt that
some others, who sustained gunshot injuries, had been hospitalised.
The Calabar
Christmas Village, located in the precinct of Calabar Municipal Council
Secretariat, opens for 24 hours from December 1 to December 31 every year as a
central location of revelry.
It was not clear if
Kiss Daniel was injured, but an eyewitness said the robbers rushed to the stage
while the pandemonium was on and succeeded in removing some items from the
musician before he was whisked away by security operatives.
An injured shop
owner in the village, Glory Andem, told Punch that the presence of robbers
became obvious when some spectators started throwing bottles at the musician.
She said, “It was a
serious situation and I got injured. What happened was that some guys came into
the village and tried to rob Kiss Daniel when he was singing, ‘Oya talk to me o
mama.’
“They were throwing
bottles and other things at him. Before we knew it, they brought out guns and
started shooting. Some security men immediately rushed to the singer. But even
with the security, the robbers rushed at him and removed his clothes and
collected things from him.
“They would have
killed that guy. To be honest, I don’t know how he managed to escape. You know
there are several thousands of people in the Christmas village usually and the
situation led to a serious pandemonium.
“They broke up
everything in my shop. They took all my money. They robbed a lot of shops. Our
chairs were broken. Everybody was running at the same time. It was a terrible
experience.
“Several cars were
vandalised. They broke the cars to steal from them. At a point, the lights went
off and I thought I was going to die. As I speak with you, I have a serious cut
from the incident and I want to go to a hospital to take a tetanus injections.”
But the state
Commissioner of Police, Mr. Jimoh Ozi-Obeh, said it was not a robbery attack,
but a misunderstanding between the organisers.
He said the original
plan was that Kiss Daniel and other musicians would perform at the U.J. Esuene
Stadium in Calabar, but the venue was changed to the Christmas village without
any notice to security agencies, leading to lack of security and what followed.
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