By Funke Busari
In Nigeria, security at home has oftentimes been taken for granted, especially, as many seem to have implicit trust in close relations or acquaintances.
Not many seem to believe that caution is needed when dealing with domestic workers and those not direct members of the family.
But some recent events have left many worried.
In Ogun State, in the early hours of January 1 2023, tragedy struck a family of four in their residence located in Ibara GRA, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Nigeria. A couple was brutally murdered at home by a gang led by their driver.
The deceased Mr. Kehinde Fatinoye, a staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria, was slaughtered while his wife, Bukola, was hit on the head with a sledgehammer. Their only son, Oreoluwa, was bound in the hands and legs and thrown into the Ogun River.
If the killing was shocking, the outcome of the investigation sent spine through the marrow of Nigerians, as the masterminds was their domestic staff, their driver, Lekan Adekanbi.
Incidents like this are becoming more regular, with homes being vandalized. The perpetrators are usually the domestic staff.
Recently, a court in Lagos sentenced to death, a domestic worker, Joseph Ogbu, who killed a grandmother and her daughter in Surulere area of Lagos. He also stole their personal belongings.
Saturday Sun spoke with some security experts who offered useful tips and how to stay safe within the comfort of one’s home.
While speaking about safety and security in the home, Dr. Bone Efoziem, the Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Strict Guard Security Limited, gave more insight into categories of attackers.
According to him, there are basically two types of attackers – people who are planned attackers and people who are incidental-run-by attackers.
According to him, these incidental-run-by attackers are dangerous. In his words, in most cases, you cannot really do much to prevent such attacks.
He said these are people who want to rob somebody in the neighbourhood and unfortunately they see an opportunity elsewhere and barge to another house that seems vulnerable. They then decide to carry out their nefarious act on the house that was originally not part of their targets.
According to Dr. Bone, these type of people are usually dangerous because they are erratic, unreasonable and they attack wanting to impact fear to the people.
He said the other ones are those who plan to attack, and they are more easily manageable.
Dr. Bone however added that it is important to note that criminals will hardly attack a place where they don’t have information about.
“‘So there is this concept in security that says crimes are planned outside the scene but finishing touches are put at the scene subject to the security arrangement on ground. They can plan the crime anywhere, but they need information about the place, that is why you see there’s usually either internal collaboration, which could be intentional, and which could also be in error,’’ he added.
He pointed out that in the neighbourhood people could give out information without intention to invite criminals to the neighbourhood.
To avoid this, he suggested that it is important to live a planned and patterned lifestyle.
This planned and patterned lifestyle is one creating a general security awareness in the neighbourhood to make everybody who lives in the neighbourhood understand that security is everybody’s business.
Speaking further, he said: “Now, if you are living in a compound where there are 10 or four families, each member knows that security is everybody’s business. What that simply means is that everybody will want to know who the occupants of the house are. If it’s a street or an estate, take your time to know who the occupants of your neighbours’ houses are, so whenever there’s a strange person or strange movement, you easily can identify such a person or people.’’
According to this security expert, crime could either be day crime or night crime. When it has to do with night crime, he said one of the first things Nigerians have been very careless about is proper illumination of the neighbourhood.
Statistics, he said, shows that 99.9 per cent of criminals want to take advantage of the cover of darkness, noting, therefore, that proper lighting of the neighbourhood is one way that deters crime and criminals.
He advised that residents must be familiar with their environment and get the red flag before it is too late.
He said this simply implies that if you are living in a neighbourhood, you must be well informed about the lifestyle and the arrangement of the people in the neighbourhood. So apart from proper illumination, be well-informed about your neighbourhood.
Another area he identified is information management, which he said is very key and pivotal to security. For him anybody who is not able to manage his or her information is prone to attacks.
This is largely due to the advent of social media and its usage, he noted, adding that many have lost valuables and their lives to the posting of their movement and achievements on the social media.
“People no longer keep secrets. A young man buys a new car, I’m sure you know one of the first things he does is to snap with the car, post it on Instagram, if possible Facebook, Snapchat, and everywhere,” he said. He insisted that this is quite dangerous.
This, he said, amounts to selling out your information about your person, wealth, status to both the people who like you and are innocent people and even those who don’t like you and also criminals. “This shows that another key factor to security is good and proper information management. Sell out less of your privileged information to the public,” he stated.
“Also, some of the things like managing information is trying as much as possible to regulate the kind of visitors and timing of visitors we receive. If a particular family is fond of receiving visitors indiscriminately. the neighbours will let down their guard and will not know when that house is under attack,” he stated.
So, for security reason, he said, apart from managing information, “there is also the need to manage the kinds of visitors as well as living a communal life in the area you live.. Know the next person and let the next person know you.”
He also spoke about the way people manage their bank information. He said people who have bank accounts and receive SMS/e-mail alerts and leave them in their phones endanger themselves and make themselves prone to attacks.
“A domestic staff, no matter how close he is to you, is not a member of your family. Before you employ, there is need for you to carry out proper background checks and intermittently vet your domestic staff,” he advised.
“Also, when you are discussing monetary issues and your driver is driving you, you must be guided because of some areas where you unconsciously sell out very confidential issues to outsiders,” he stated.
Another Lagos-based security expert, Ambassador Bolaji Ogunmola, told Saturday Sun: “The first thing is the choice of place. Choose a place that is less vulnerable.”
He stated that it is important to choose the area that is of less security risk.
Analysing this security measure, he said: “Some people coming all the way from abroad to Nigeria will not live anywhere else except on the Island in Lagos. They would not even establish their companies on the mainland.
“There are about 20 or 23 per cent of people who live in Lagos. They don’t come to the Mainland except for the airport. What they consider there is that there is much security apparatus on the Island than on the Mainland. So the first thing is the choice of place,” he added.
Speaking further, he said: “There could be other hazards, other things that are on the Island compared to the mainland. For instance, drainages, water flooding places after a little rainfall but those are safety issues they know they can manage compared to other things.
Ogunmola said: “In law, there is something we call the lesser of two evils. If there are two things that are bad and we must make do with one, we now look for the one that is less, compared to the other and make do with that. So for someone to come and expose himself to certain risks on the mainland, he would rather prefer to face the flood on the Island.”
Another measure, in his words, was fortification of residence.