By Ozioruva Aliu, BENIN CITY

A civil society group, the Civil Empowerment and Rule of Law Support Initiative, CERLSI, has called on the federal government to put adequate security measures in place to stem incessant kidnappings in several parts of Nigeria particularly the South-South and North West axis where incidences of kidnapping is rampant.
The Deputy Executive Director of CERLSI, Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku made this plea yesterday in a chat with journalists in Benin City, Edo State, where he said that Nigerians in these parts of the country particularly in the North West were currently living with “their hearts in their mouths, and sleeping with only one eye open.”
He said “The protection of lives and property, and the provision of security for the people is a primary constitutional reference point which governments the world over owe their citizens.

“In the past administration of Muhammadu Buhari, these issues appeared to have been nipped in the bud. But we are taken aback that kidnapping and abductions have resurfaced in the North East and North West and other parts of Nigeria” he said.
He called on the Nigerian government to create a counter-kidnapping squad, CKS, “which can function as a crack team of military, police, paramilitary personnel with a mandate to collect and manage intelligence in communities where these incidents of kidnapping for ransom prevail.
“Our people in the North West live precariously. We cannot work with them, and this is because these issues of insecurity are always in the way of our work in the area of capacity building and elections” Etemiku said.
CERLSI works to engage citizens on elections, Rule of Law & Human Rights and community advocacy.