The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has urged Nigerians to disregard news of impending terror attacks on the Federal Capital Capital (FCT) and other parts of the country, saying they were sponsored to create fear.
Police spokesperson Olamuyiwa Adejobi said this in a statement on Saturday.
Adejobi said it was surprising and disheartening to read in the news and on social media that bombs were being planted in every area of the FCT, even by individuals who were “presumed to be peace ambassadors and patriotic agents of national unity in Nigeria”.
He noted that such news would not do the country any good but create more panic among “citizens and residents of the FCT and Nigeria at large”.
“We, therefore, urge residents of the FCT and Nigerians at large to disregard this fake news, which was purportedly sponsored to create fear in our people and heat up the polity,” he said. –
He reiterated that the FCT was safe and there was no imminent threat, adding that the nation’s capital has not been saturated with bombs as speculated in the news.
Adejobi said the police would continue to adopt all effective operational strategies to decimate the activities of non-state actors and other criminal elements in the country.
There have been palpable fear and tension among Nigerians across the country, particularly residents of the FCT, following elevated terror alerts issued by foreign embassies in the country to their citizens since Sunday.
The security alert, which came as a travel advisory to their citizens, was started by the United States (US). The United Kingdom (UK), Germany, Ireland, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Bulgaria followed suit.
It culminated in the US and the UK ordering their non-essential staff and their families to depart the country beginning on Tuesday.
President Muhammadu Buhari had also urged Nigerians not to panic, assuring that security operatives were on top of the situation.
There were reports that security operatives led by the Department of State Service (DSS) and operatives of the American Army arrested some suspected terrorists at the Trademore Estate in Lugbe area of the FCT on Wednesday.
It was also reported that a joint operation launched by the DSS, the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the police and other security agencies in the early hours of Friday successfully dismantled a terror cell and arrested five Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commanders and 30 fighters.
According to the Punch, the terror suspects were apprehended at their hideouts in different locations in Abuja, Mararaba and other satellite towns in the Federal Capital Territory.
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