Waliu Adegoke, a process, construction and occupational safety and health professional who runs a safety podcast called “Safety Live Podcast with Walieyullah” has urged people to deliberately protect themselves from kidnappers.

In a chat with our correspondent, Waliu, who has been in the safety business for more than 7 years, opined that safety professionals have a role to play to sensitize individuals about the increasing cases of kidnapping in the country.

He advised individuals to practice self-defence and to develop the habit of keeping their phone’s GPS location on while embarking on a long journey.

“There are applicable preventive measures family can also put in place”, he opined.

According to Waliu “the basic training we received while growing up, where parents warn children to be wary of strangers” will also be helpful at this period.

“There should always be communication about our whereabouts to at least one person”, he also pointed out.

Advice to Government
Waliu asserted that “The government knows what to do” but also advised them to embrace the idea of state policing and to set up a police unit that tackles kidnapping cases mainly.

“The government needs to severely punish kidnappers arrested so that other perpetrators of such act can see it as a capital offence”.

Background

There is a highrise in the number of kidnap cases in Nigeria. Very recently, Aljazeera reported that “at least 700 students have been abducted in northern states since December”.

There is fear over the tendencies of workers getting kidnapped while returning from their workplaces.