Nigeria’s President Muhamadu Buhari has called for calm after a wave of alerts issued by international diplomatic missions over the possibility of a terrorist attack in the country’s capital, Abuja.
«Unfortunately, terror is a reality all over the world. However, that does not mean that an attack in Abuja is imminent,» the president said in a statement issued by his spokesman, Garba Shehu.
Throughout this week, the embassies of the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries such as Spain, Denmark, Ireland, Bulgaria, Finland and Germany had warned of reports of a possible attack in the capital, with the consequent risk for their citizens in the African country.
Before the president made his statement, the Nigerian government had already deplored these warnings, which only fueled «unnecessary tension and panic», as the Minister of Information, Lai Mohamed, regretted last Tuesday.
Buhari, in his Friday statement, assured that «the security of Nigerians remains the government’s top priority» and that «the security services are working around the clock to keep the situation under control», according to the note reported by Premium Times.
On the other hand, the State Security Service (SSS) has confirmed that its security forces carried out this past Monday a search operation in a farm in the capital, without giving more details, although it has denied that it was carried out with the support of the US military, as was initially suggested by the Nigerian media.
«I can tell you categorically that we did not carry out any joint operation with U.S. soldiers as was widely reported in the media,» said SSS spokesman Peter Afunanya.
