Dry Run: Joint Stakeholders Inspects Carnival Calabar Road Mapping as DOPT Takes Over Route Management

The joint Stakeholders on 2019 Carnival Calabar have inspected the approved routes for the event ahead of carnival dry run on Sunday,20th October,2019.

Some of stakeholders are Carnival Commission,Band leaders, International Carnival Consultant led by Ikechi Uko ,Security Agencies, Department of Public Transportation (DOPT), Ministry of Culture and Tourism,Fire Service, The Media among others.

The Department of Public Transportation (DOPT) has  been given sole mandate to manage all the carnival routes.

Speaking during the pre dry run route raking,Chairman of the  Cross River State Carnival Commission,Mr Gabe Onah along side the Senior Special Adviser, Governors Office and Event Management,Ken Aklah said the purpose of the inspection was to establish in the minds of all the Stakeholders ,the consciousness of the new thinking of the Governor on Carnival Calabar 2019.

This he said was to create excitement and bring in something new to the global audience who always looking forward to the annual event.

"The desire of his Excellency the Governor is to create new excitement and bring something new because as we break new grounds our competitors want to get to where we  are.

"This stakeholders rakings is therefore a combine pre route Recce ahead of dry ruin tomorrow October 20,2019 and we are doing this jointly because we want to introduce new things.

"The Recce is to estimate how long it will take despite dancing and stopping on the street to calibrate on time spent which is essential for the carnival,the participants and the spectators.

Continuing,Onah who Sue for cooperation of all the Stakeholders  said there is newly introduced performance points around the traditional five adjudication points on the twelve kilometre carnival routes.

The Chairman said the  Governor introduced these new performance points   to bring  more excitement on the roads in other to engage both the tourists and the spectators who are in the time past waiting endlessly before band performances arrived.

"The Performance point one is LG office by Mary slessor, performance two is marry slessor to Marian by Barrack Road junction, performance three is Governors Boot, performance four is Apples Fast food on Marian and performance five is channelview hotels.

"DOPT has the sole right to mann all the carnival routes.Some of these routes will be Permanently locked down"he said.

The Inspection team  had in attendance, the representatives of the Carnival  Media partners ,including DStv, AIT, NTA,TVC and Aljazeera.