The Federal Government has again called on Nigerians to ignore the security threat and travel advisory recently issued by the US and UK, and continue with their daily routines.
This was the outcome of the emergency security meeting summoned by President Buhari to assess the real situation of the threat
While briefing State House correspondents on the outcome the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, emphasised that the threat and advisory were mainly issued to the citizens of the countries that originated them.
“It’s been the norm for US to make such pronouncement.
We engaged the US from this, and their response was that they are obliged to put out those kinds of statements, normally travel advisories, but in this case, it was an alert but they said that they were obliged to, for their citizens, and that the advice, you know, the alert was really, for their citizens, that they do it around the world, as you know, they did it also in South Africa, in this particular case. And of course, we are used to the US travel advisories, as the DG NIA drew that distinction between the two. And so they said for them, it’s a constitutional issue”, he stressed.
Mr. Onyeama said Nigeria would continue to work closely with foreign partners’ missions in the country.
“We, as a country, have the prime responsibility to safeguard the diplomats who are residing in our country, and to ensure their security.
And so we have to engage with all these foreign partners. And also, with the security threats that we face as a country, we have a lot of partners that are working with us to address those security challenges, you know, right across the country”, the Minister said.
And of course, creating panic in our country will have all kinds of multiplier effects, you know, and especially, if we feel that intelligence does not also warrant that.
During an interjection, the National Security Adviser, retired Major General Babagana Monguno, acknowledged that some arrests were recently made, explaining however that they had no connection with the terror threats and advisories the UK and the US issued to their citizens.
“Arrests have been made, you must remember that Nigeria has been engaged in at least the asymmetric conflicts, for quite a number of years. And the arrest I’m talking about are not necessarily in relation to the alerts that were issued by the US Embassy.
These are in relation basically to ongoing operations being conducted by the Nigerian Armed Forces, Intelligence, and security agencies.
I mentioned that just to allay the fears that these people these organisations have continuously been on the toes that continuously engaged other entities, other groups, and this has resulted in arrest”, he explained.