Commercial activities halt at Calabar Christmas Village over snakes scare

Commercial activities at the Christmas Village in Calabar Municipal Council of Cross River State was temporarily brought to a standstill when snakes came from the uncleared bush and surrounding areas and threatened to swallow some people. The snakes suspected to be dangerous were not killed as they disappeared into the thick night.

Besides the snake threat, other dangerous animals such as rodents were also sighted at the village. Sadly, some public and civil servants and businessmen as well as those who patronize the village were also exposed to snakes’ bite, rodents and cockroaches attack as the environment they are working and doing business are not conducive but filthy due to heaps of refuse and overgrown weeds as well as unkempt environment.

Virtually, the entire environment, with the exception of a small cleared area has been taken over by overgrown weeds and heaps of refuse.  Besides the refuse, the offensive odour produced from the opened defecation has caused some illnesses to people doing business around the area as well as people working there.

When our correspondent visited the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH) and General Hospital Calabar, patients were seen on admission for one health problems or the other associated with inhalation of odours emanating from the opened defecation from the Christmas village.
Some patients who spoke with our correspondent on condition of anonymity lamented the non-clearing of the environment before the village was declared opened by Governor Ben Ayade for business and attribute their ill health to this filthy  environment.

Health personnel including medical doctors who attended to the patients attributed the problems of the patients to inhalation of contaminated air and condemned the non clearing of overgrown weeds in the Christmas village. However, businessmen who do business at the village lamented that organizers were adamant on the issue.

They attributed their ill health to inhalations of bad odours and called on the government agencies responsible for keeping the environment clean to save them from the agony of bad environment.