Parents urged to be security conscious

Detective Police Sergeant (D/Sgt), Amos Kofi Larbi of the Winneba Police Command has underscored the need for Parents to be security conscious and avoid indulging in activities that will expose their children to kidnappers.

He said the trust between parents and children should be such that the children should have full confidence in them to reveal any happenings around them to their parents.

D/Sgt. Larbi, was speaking at a forum organized by final year Guidance and Counseling Sandwich Students of the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), at winneba.

The forum under the theme “Sensitizing the Youth about Kidnapping in Ghana”, was to educate the youth especially on kidnapping in the country and the way forward.

D/Sgt. Larbi urged parents to prioritise the security and welfare of their children to help prevent some of occurrences of Kidnapping in the society.

He said the fight against kidnapping was a shared responsibility of the security agencies and all other stakeholders, and that cooperation of the entire society was highly require to help fight the menace.

A sketch by the group during the forum depicted a university graduate who was jobless for four years and influenced with money, joined a gang of kidnappers but was unlucky during such an operation which saw four of the gang members being shot and killed by the Police.

The graduate who escaped death but was arrested, was convicted and sentenced to 25 years imprisonment by a court.

Later during a presentation, the students appealed to Parliament to change Section 89 of the criminal code, 1960 (Act 29)which states that “Whoever kidnaps any person shall be guilty of second-degree felony” to first degree felony in order that higher sentences will be given to people who indulged in such acts to deter others.

The students also called for the training of strong anti-kidnapping agents to combat the crime.

The forum concluded that parents should know the whereabouts of their wards at all times, while younger ones should be given codes as they go to school and also know their telephone numbers to be able to contact them in any eventuality.

The group took participants through types of kidnapping which include, High net worth individual, Express, Tiger, Political/Terrorist, Basic and Virtual kidnappings and also unlawful detention.

According the forum though Ghana is considered to be one of the most secure countries in West Africa there was the need to stamp out any kidnappings in the bud.

They also schooled the participants who were mostly Junior and Senior High School students in Winneba on causes of kidnapping, how to identify kidnappers and their tactics, what to do in case of bring kidnapped, how to prevent kidnapping and also effects of kidnapping.