If you are unlucky enough to have any problems with criminals during your travels, it’s likely to be with opportunists: pickpockets and petty thieves who are after an easy, non-violent way to separate you from your valuables.
Pickpockets: This advice will help you stay clear of most pickpockets. Always stick to well-lit and busy areas, but avoid public transport and stations during rush hour.
Don’t wander around with a map or guidebook in your hands: if you get lost, duck into a café to get your bearings.
If you’ve only got today’s cash in your wallet or pocket, you won’t lose much. Some people carry a dummy wallet in their back pocket, while their real one is zipped inside a jacket pocket or carried in their front pocket.
Don’t carry, or show, valuable things in poor areas. Leave jewellery and electronics locked in a safe, not on display.
If you use a money belt to store valuable documents and cash, keep it secret and keep it safe.
Be especially alert in markets and, if anyone bumps you, check for your wallet… they might be that good.
If you can handle the fashion faux-pas, consider buying trousers with zippable pockets: they make it that much tricker for pickpockets.
Always lock bags with a sturdy padlock, and carry backpacks or messenger bags in front of you in high-risk areas.
Bag cutting: When pickpockets can’t find their way into your bags through the normal methods of sliding open zips, they might take the risk of slicing open the bottom of your bag with a knife. This is often done by small groups, with many hands making quick work of all your possessions as they fall to the ground.
To deter this type of theft, use a bag with hefty material, rather than lightweight nylon or silk bags. Carry the bag in front of you, rather than on your back. Don’t be seen to be putting valuable things into the bag and, if you are carrying laptops or electronics, put them into suspended pockets within the bag, rather than in the main compartment. Additionally, putting something bulky like a jacket in the bottom of the bag might stop things from falling out if it is cut open. Some companies, such as PacSafe, produce bags with “slash-proof” features but you pay for this security with a significantly weightier bag.
Snatch and run: Snatch-and-run crimes are more aggressive, but normally non-violent. In these cases, the criminals will cut a strap, pull sharply to break a strap, or simply make a grab at a loose item such as a purse, smartphone or camera — then run. They might have partners to distract you or to slow down a chase, or they might use a motorcycle or scooter to race up behind someone and get away almost before you know what is happening.
At particular risk for these crimes are electronics hanging from neck straps, like DSLR cameras or MP3 players and cellphones on a lanyard. A quick-fingered person running a knife near the back of your neck is never a good thing, and the weight of these electronics mean they drop swiftly into their hand. Messenger bags looped from one shoulder are also at high risk, especially when carried behind you. You’ll notice it going, but might not be able to do much about it.
Motorbike snatch-and-ride: Perhaps the most dangerous snatch-and-run technique is when criminals use a motorcycle or scooter. One person will drive, while the snatcher rides pillion behind them. They will drive up onto the pavement or target a person walking near the roadside and grab at a loose-hanging bag or handheld purse, relying on the speed of the bike to break any straps. However, occasionally the straps don’t break, and the victim will be dragged along the roadside, unable to disentangle themselves.
It’s very unlikely the criminals will let go of their prize: the tighter you hold, the more value they will assume they have found. Our advice in this case is to keep yourself as unharmed as possible: let go, get out of the straps, do whatever you must to avoid being dragged behind the vehicle.
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NEWS
Lai Moh’d ignorant of governance in Kwara – Gov Ahmed
By Bukola Adama
The Kwara State Government has said the Minister for Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed’s recent pronouncements on governance in Kwara State are at variance with the reality on ground.
In a response to statements by the Minister containing unsupported claims about governance in the state, the Kwara State Government contradicted the image of stagnation painted by Alhaji Mohammed, maintaining that the state has recorded commendable strides.
“Kwara State has made visible incremental progress in the years referred to by Alhaji Mohammed. For example, since 2003, under the administration of former governor Bukola Saraki and as upscaled by the current administration of Alhaji Abdulfatah Ahmed, Kwara State has overcome its position as a civil service-driven state and is now a major frontier of growth in the north central region. The growth cuts across all sectors of our economy and includes successful reforms in health insurance, agriculture, energy, revenue generation, infrastructure development and funding which several states across the country continue to understudy and adopt. These reforms have the added distinction of earning Kwara State national and international acclaim in addition to vastly improving the lives of the people”.
The statement added that the minister also failed to clarify his claim that workers have been pauperised in the state on account of salary arrears.
It added that, “If the Minister was abreast of developments in the state, he will know or at least acknowledge that only local government workers are owed by their individual councils due to the drop in their federation allocation.”
While maintaining that progress has also been made in road infrastructure despite existing gaps, including on federal roads like Ajase Ipo-Erin-Ile, the government stressed that in addition to major achievements on state roads, it is currently intervening on Sango -Oke-Ose federal road, and has started work on Kishi-Kaiama road, before the FG took over funding.
On the issue of bailouts from the FG, the state government clarified that the only intervention received by the state in 2015 was deployed for salaries of state workers and infrastructure. It stated further that other federal interventions which restructured state government loans and provided budget support due to shortfalls in federal allocation in 2016/2017 were utilised for recurrent expenditure such as salaries as appropriated.
On Paris Club refunds, the state government maintained that N5.6b was released to local government councils for the payment of salary arrears out of the amount so far received by the state.
“The prolonged local government salary crises in the country is sensitive and emotive. We, therefore, urge the Minister to focus more on leveraging his position as federal minister to secure a solution to the problem if the welfare of the affected workers is so important to him rather than using their hardship for partisanship”.
“Alhaji Mohammed is also advised to adopt a more temperate tone with regard to sensitive issues in Kwara State such as the tragic Offa Robbery which took the lives of 33 innocent civilians and policemen.
He should join the state government and the Offa community in supporting ongoing efforts to prevent a recurrence, in tangible ways, rather than acting in a manner that heat up the polity”.
