By Jane Okafor, Abuja
The Nigeria Police Force has attributed the heavy deployment of security personnel and barricades across parts of Abuja’s city centre to a planned protest, insisting that the measures are preventive and aimed at maintaining law and order.
The heightened security presence, which has resulted in severe traffic congestion and long delays for motorists, civil servants and other commuters around the Federal Secretariat and adjoining districts, has raised concerns among residents over the past few days.
However, addressing the issue during a joint media briefing by security and intelligence agencies, the Force Public Relations Officer, CSP Anietie Iniedu, dismissed fears of any imminent threat, describing the deployment as a routine joint security operation.
“It is a joint operation. There is no cause for alarm at the moment,” he said.
Iniedu explained that security agencies had recorded an increase in protest activities within the Federal Capital Territory’s city centre and had consequently reinforced security to prevent 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.
He noted that the security measures were particularly necessary because Abuja, as Nigeria’s capital, hosts key government institutions, diplomatic missions and foreign investors whose confidence must be protected.
“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 also revealed that the Force had broadened its security strategy by introducing what he described as “intelligence-led community collaborative policing.”
According to him, the evolving security landscape requires stronger cooperation between security agencies and local communities beyond conventional intelligence gathering.
“We’ve seen that intelligence alone won’t help us. We have gone far to create collaborative processes with our communities,” he said.
Also speaking at the briefing, Kingsley Amako of the National Coordination Office of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) said security agencies had continued to strengthen intelligence gathering and financial surveillance to combat 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 and intelligence agencies were working closely to address emerging threats and urged the media to seek clarification from the appropriate authorities whenever necessary.
The police reassured residents that the security deployments were purely precautionary and urged the public to remain calm and cooperate with security personnel as efforts continue to safeguard lives and property across the nation’s capital.
