THE BUREAU | OPINION

Considering the enormous challenges of insecurity ranging from kidnapping to banditry, armed robbery, ritual killings and other forms of terrorism bedeviling Nigeria, it is very important to observe safety measures in our everyday lives, especially traveling on the Nigerian roads.

1. Travel only during the day:

Even though this does not guaranty 100 percent safety, it is better to travel and arrive during the day especially in unfamiliar terrains than arriving at night and survive at the mercy of God and chance.

2. Notify your close relations of your whereabout:

This is not the period for surprise visits. It is very important that people notify their loved ones of their journeys (even short ones) to give them clues to follow in cases of eventualities.

3. Turn on Google Location service on your phone:

This is very important because it will afford the law enforcement and your loved ones the opportunity to see the history of your journeys, places visited, time of arrival and all. In cases of kidnapping, people with access to the Find My Phone account on your phone will easily locate you and hopefully, rescue.
Carry good identity cards or other approved government identity cards. This is very important in any case of mishap. It gives opportunity to helpers to locate your family members.

4. Try to blend in:

Understanding the culture and other ways of life of the people you’d be visiting will go a long way to save you of harassments and appearing as a target to bad people. Bad people have a way of easily identifying new faces in town.

5. Get informed:

Do thorough background searches about the place you intend to travel to. Ask questions like; the dos and don’t of the town, crime history, presence of law enforcement, hotel safety and many others.

6. Trust your instinct:

Do not ignore warning signs from your third eye aka instinct of intuition. Many times, warnings from your spirit turns out to be correct.

Source: The Bureau