- Security Agencies Explain Heavy Deployment, Road Barricades Across Abuja
- Police linked the measures to increased protests in the capital.
- Authorities assured residents there is no cause for alarm.
Security agencies have explained the heavy deployment of personnel and road barricades across parts of Abuja, assuring residents and visitors that the measures are routine and aimed at maintaining law and order amid a recent increase in protests within the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
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EKO HOT BLOG reports that the assurance was given on Thursday during a joint media briefing by security and intelligence agencies following concerns over the heightened security presence in the nation’s capital.
The barricades, mounted at strategic locations across the city centre in recent days, have caused heavy traffic congestion and delays for thousands of motorists, civil servants and commuters travelling to and from offices.
Speaking at the briefing, the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Anietie Iniedu, dismissed fears of any imminent security threat, stressing that there was no cause for panic.
“It is a joint operation. There is no cause for alarm at the moment,” Iniedu said.
According to him, security agencies increased deployments after observing a rise in protests across the city centre, with the objective of ensuring public safety and preventing any breakdown of law and order.
“We’ve noticed that there has been an upsurge of protests in the city centre, and we’re trying to maintain law and order as is our basic and primary responsibility.
“The deployments are basically deployments with movement from one location to the other to ensure that our city centre is safe,” he said.
Iniedu noted that the heightened security measures were necessary because Abuja serves as Nigeria’s capital city, housing key government institutions, diplomatic missions and foreign investors.
“Remember, we’re in the capital, and there’s a lot that has to be done to ensure confidence in those in the city centre and also for our foreign investors,” he added.
The police spokesman further disclosed that the Nigeria Police Force had expanded its policing strategy from intelligence led policing to what he described as intelligence led community collaborative policing.
He explained that the new approach places greater emphasis on working closely with communities, saying intelligence gathering alone was no longer sufficient to tackle emerging security threats.
“We’ve seen that intelligence alone won’t help us. We have gone far to create collaborative processes with our communities,” he stated.
Also speaking, Kingsley Amako of the National Coordination Office of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit said security agencies had strengthened intelligence gathering and financial surveillance to disrupt terrorism financing and other criminal activities.
“We have very robust intelligence gathering mechanisms. As they are evolving into new tricks and changing their tactics, we are also evolving with them,” Amako said.
He added that while certain security operations could not be disclosed publicly for operational reasons, security agencies were working together to counter emerging threats and urged the media to seek clarification from relevant authorities whenever necessary.
