It has been advocated that one of the best ways to curb domestic kidnap and other vices

prevalent in the workplace is the use of background check services.

This recommendation was made by the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Primex

Background Check Ltd, Frank Oyorhigho while answering questions from a group of

reporters in Lagos recently.

According to Oyorhigho, while making reference to the recent cases of house helps

kidnapping of employers children and stealing of valuables, he said that if the house maid

employers took time to conduct background check on the maid and the agent through

whom they got the maid, they would have been able to discover that they were scammers

and that would have prevented them from hiring them.

Background check according to the former Skye Bank staff, is not only for use by corporate

organisations but by everybody and for any cadre of staff and personnel.

“As far as you deal with human beings, you need to have background information about

them to help you make quality decisions” he said.

According to him, background check services is not just a security exercise but also a tool

that can help security personnel to carry out their job more effectively. He said that if there

was a background check report on these ladies and the agent, the police would have had

enough information and leads to investigate the incident. “But as it is now, the police would

be working almost on a blank sheet which makes the work tougher”.

On whether people should stop patronizing the use of house help, the Delta State born

background check consultant said that, because of the economic situation of the country

where both husband and wife have to work to keep the family going, it is almost impossible

not to engage the services of house helps. He therefore advised that before you engage the

service of staff both for domestic and corporate use as a matter of exigency you must

conduct background check before making the hiring decision.

While reacting to to the issue of cost, he said that the cost of background check is just a

fraction of the amount it will cost you to engage the police to investigate the matter when

the crime is eventually committed. The psychological trauma that victims go through cannot

be measured in monetary terms. So it is safer, cheaper and healthier to conduct

background check before engaging the service of any personnel.