The Cross River State Police Command said it arrested at least 12 suspects in connection with recent kidnappings, armed robbery and other crimes in the state.

The arrest followed a spate of kidnappings in recent times, the latest victims being a woman simply known as Mrs Ironbar, who was reportedly abducted from her home on Murray Street in Calabar on Thursday;  A businessman known as Daniel Akpan was also reportedly kidnapped from his home in Akpabuyo.

Confirming the kidnap of Mrs Ironbar, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Irene Ugbo, said, “That is the only kidnapping case we had.” Ugbo, however, denied that another person was kidnapped in Akpabuyo.

She said the Anti-Kidnapping and Cultism Squad of the Police Command has been raiding Calabar South and other parts of the state and had arrested some suspects.

According to her, “When you raid a particular place constantly it drives away criminals. The CP (Commissioner of Police, Abdulkadir Jimoh) is very keen about that. If you go out at night, from 6 pm you will see the police everywhere conducting stop-and-search.

“We have arrested quite a number of persons. We have arrested 12 suspects during the raids and they have all been charged to court. They are high-profile suspects so there was no need for us to keep them.”

Nigerians are engineered to find mirth in almost everything and so it is no surprise that amidst the nationwide protest to end police brutality, there has been a burst of witty memes, short videos and new slangs on social media.

The surprising thing is that these humour-based expressions in no way trivialized the ongoing protest. In fact, this funny clips serves the deeper function of educating people using the language they are conversant with; humour.

But slangs are the focus of this article.

It has been employed liberally in the last two weeks, so much so that one in every quip on social media is delivered with one or more of these humour bombs.

How are slangs created? According to popular opinion, slangs are coined by everyday people with an above-average, vocabulary signature that they have consciously altered to suit their need for an expanded expression.

And although they are often created by everyday people, they catch on only when deployed by celebrities or influential individuals.

So, we put together a few of the slangs currently making the rounds on social media to help you remember and maybe laugh a little.

SORO SOKE

If slangs had a military ranking, ‘Soro Soke‘ would be a brigadier general. It has been used so much by the protesting collective in the last two weeks that it is probably the most used hash tag after the END SARS hash tag.

This particular slang, roughly translated means ‘speak up’ and it became some sort of anger-based directive demanding a feedback or a vocabulary used to mock an unpopular opinion.

WAHALA BE LIKE BICYCLE

This slang or quip always comes from a place of humour, preceding a humourous situation, video or text.

It is some sort of preparation for a less than-stellar occurrence and using those lines help the audience know that someone has been placed on the ‘naughty’ scale and have been found wanting.

WEREY DEY DISGUISE

As far as cyber insults go, ‘Werey dey disguise’ tops the list of the vilest.

It is a choice insult, period. Roughly translated, it means ‘a mad man’s attempt to disguise.’

When used, the expression is always employed as a full-frontal verbal attack at another person’s exposed trickery.

Its delivery, when done by a seasoned internet troll, is a delight to see.

WE MOVE

This is a nudge to heed some form of clarion call. It received notoriety alongside its partner slang ‘soro soke’ with the rise of the #EndSars movement, when it was used countless times in collaboration with it.

The term’s virality made it good enough to be hashtagged hundreds of times in the last two weeks.

‘We move’ is self explanatory and is an encouragement to advance, in spite of adverse circumstances.