Nigeria's military authorities declared yesterday that it had the capacity to handle any possible terrorists' strike, in a reaction to Thursday's terror alert by the American embassy.
The re-assurance came amid clarifications by the State Department of the United States of America of the warning issued in Nigeria, in the run-up to the sixth anniversary of the September 11 attack on the U.S.
While the government through the Defence Headquarters assured Nigerians and foreigners that the military was "capable and ready" to forestall any possible terrorist strike, Washington downplayed the report, that it was a mere sharing of information with Americans in Nigeria.
The State Department, which commented on the issue on Thursday evening (Friday in Nigeria), said that the warning was not specific in terms of target and timing.
Director of Defence Information, Col. Mohammed Yusuf, said the report emanating from the American Consulate over threats to Western and U.S. interests in Nigeria should not lead to panic as the military was fully charged to carry out its constitutional responsibility of defending the nation's territorial integrity at all times.
Yusuf, who was initially hesitant to speak on the media reports, said "we have always said the Nigerian Armed Forces are prepared to face any security threat at all times. See what happened in Port Harcourt, did we not flush them out? So this terror alert is no different. We are prepared to carry out our constitutional mandate at all times, whether there is an alert or not to defend the security of Nigeria, short and simple. We are prepared 24 hours and seven days a week to carry out our constitutional mandate."
He spoke on a day the Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Andrew Owoye Azazi met with the service chiefs in his office. Those present were the Chief of Army Staff, Lt- Gen. Luka Yusuf, Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Paul Dike and a representative of Vice Admiral Ganiyu Tunde Adekeye, who is currently in Brazil for the bi-centenary celebration of the Brazilian Navy in honour of Admiral Marquez Lisboa.
It was not clear if the reported alert by the American Embassy formed part of the meeting, which a source at the Defence Headquarters termed "routine."
The controversial warning from U.S. Consulate came a few days to the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks in American.
The State Department later on Thursday afternoon, through its deputy spokesman, Tom Casey, told the press in Washington, DC that the information the government had about the message was that it was not specific in terms of target and timing.
It was however not clear when the Embassy released its warning, but the State Department's clarification indicated that the Embassy's statement was on Wednesday, and was only reported in the Nigerian media yesterday, implying a possible circulation to the local press on Thursday.
Before the clarification from Washington, the U.S mission had, in statement, said that it received information that America and other western interests in Nigeria were at risk of a terrorist attack.
The statement added that the potential targets were diplomatic buildings and businesses in Abuja and Lagos.
But later on the same day (Thursday) in Washington DC, reporters pounded the U.S. government with questions on more details.
Responding, Casey said: "Let me tell you what I've been able to find out about that. Yesterday, the U.S. Embassy and the Consulate in Lagos did issue a message that alerted Americans to the possibilities for attacks on, Western commercial or official installations in the country."
Casey added that he understood that to mean "that the information that we had was not specific in terms of either a target or any particular timing. But as we always do when we have any kind of information, particularly when we feel it is appropriate to share it with our own staff and employees, we also have an obligation to make sure that that is shared as well with the broader American community."
He added that the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria also provided such an information to people in the country, suggesting some general security awareness tips and also "encouraged them to take an active role in their personal security and review the kinds of security practices they are doing for themselves."
Such advice made sense anyway, according to Casey, considering what he called "some of the other known problems in Nigeria in terms of criminality and kidnappings and other things."
A reporter asked whether he thought this was an occasion to buy any specific inventory, to which he replied: "Well, again, I think there is always a stream of information coming in and we certainly know that there are various kinds of extremist groups that are active in Africa as well as in other parts of the world. But this was not occasioned because we had information about a specific threat to a specific location or timed to a specific event. It's more of a general set of information out there."
On whether the warning could have been put out last week or the week before, Casey replied: "I think we make these assessments based on the total amount of information available, and the information that we had at this point made us think it'd be an appropriate time to do this."
FROM MADU ONUORAH (ABUJA) AND LAOLU AKANDE (NEW YORK)
The Guardian
Saturday, September 8, 2007
