Are Terrorists Truly Planning To Attack FCT? – Police Reacts

The Federal Capital Territory Command of the Nigeria Police Force has refuted viral reports claiming a planned terrorist attack in the territory.

The command said it was informed of a viral social media publication misleading the citizens about the security situation of the FCT.

In a press statement in Abuja on Thursday, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) for the command, DSP Josephine Adeh urged Nigerians, especially those living within the FCT, to treat as trash the misleading writeups which according to her are targeted at disturbing the peace of the nation.

She said: “The attention of the FCT Police Command has been drawn to a series of misleading writeups tagged: Security Alert in circulation on the popular social media platform WhatsApp and many others, suggesting an ongoing plan and coordination of a terrorist attack on some areas, social, and critical infrastructures in the FCT.

“The erroneous news is a product of misguided and attention-seeking individuals, targeted at promoting panic and apprehension in the minds of residents.

“It is unfounded and should be disregarded as the mountains and hills so mentioned have in recent times witnessed heavy deployment of tactical and Intelligence assets of the police and sister security agencies sweeping through them on intelligence gathering routines exercises and dislodging the possible habitation of criminal elements, an exercise which is promised to be sustained.

“While critically investigating the assertion with a view to ascertain its root cause and validity, It has been discovered that hunting activities have been one of the misinterpreted activities on the hills and mountains in some of the areas so mentioned, therefore, the police in collaboration with traditional authorities of these areas have suspended such activities in a bid to douse public apprehension.”

The force disclosed further that prior to the emergence of the erroneous writeups, police operatives and officials from sister security agencies were deployed to secure human and material resources in the area.

Their presence, according to the PPRO, may have been erroneously summarized as a preparation for an envisaged terrorist attack.

The statement added: “Consequent upon the above, the FCT Commissioner of Police, CP Babaji Sunday, while reassuring residents of the command’s unflinching commitment to bringing crime and criminality in the territory to its barest minimum, wishes to state that these areas and the FCT as a whole is safe.

“He, therefore, urges members of the public to go about their lawful duties without the fear of harassment or molestation of any kind and from any quarters.

“To complement the above, additional deployments have been made to the areas mentioned in the viral writeups amidst intensified surveillance and monitoring. Residents are therefore urged to remain vigilant, and report any suspicious or abnormal occurrence to the Police through the following emergency lines: 08032003913, 08061581938, 07057337653, and 08028940883, while the Public Complaint Bureau (PCB) desk, could be reached on: 0902 222 2352.”