Insecurity: Nigerians React As Massive Military Presence In Abuja Contradicts Lai Muhammed’s Terror Threat Dismissal

Following the persistent issuance of terror threats by the United States (US) Embassy, there has been a massive deployment of combat Special Forces of the Military in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), causing some Nigerians to express confusion over whose side to belong.

Lai Muhammed, the Minister of Information and Culture had acknowledged the US security alert, yet trashed it, saying the country was safe and such intelligence was unverified.

Two days after, an ongoing counter-intelligence operation led by the Department of State Services (DSS), the National Intelligence Agency, police and other security agencies reportedly led to the arrest of at least 35 terror suspects at their various hideouts.

They are reportedly being held at the DSS facility.

The series of events in the last six days have sparked reactions from some Nigerians who confirmed the heavy presence of fully kitted security operatives on Friday night across some hotspot areas in the FCT.

On the macro blogging App, Twitter, there were mixed reactions over the Federal Government’s response to the US intelligence and their failure to take proactive measures to prevent the infiltration of non-state actors into the FCT.

THE WHISTLER garnered reactions from the Twitter handle of a Military and Security Affairs Analyst, Deji Adesogan, who disclosed in a post that the terror suspects were arrested for profiling. Their reactions are as follows:

A tweep @peccaviConsults asked, “Please I am confused, police and DSS Launch counter-terror drill, minister of communication says nothing to worry about, President says nothing to worry about. Police special forces launch Op MopThemAll. Does anybody talk to anybody on this government?”

Another tweep @abdvlkadr stated, “You actually expect any government worldwide to tell its citizens to worry then ask its security operatives to relax when there’s a threat? This is standard protocol no need to throw the masses into a frenzy.”

Also, @Are_dion stated, “ If the US had not sent memo or the memo was not leaked, would they have MopDemAll? I don’t know who is in charge of our security, but people are using them to do politics, which is sad.”

Then @ProfCS5 said, “So US advisory was not baseless as Lai would prefer to have us believe!”

But @Blakjizuz noted, “The DSS started their arrests since before your US sent its memo and alert.”

Similarly, @OttakuSenshi said, “ I never trusted anything the US government said. This is a bit far-fetched, but why does it feel like they got info that the DSS was about to engage in this exercise so they sent out the warning to covertly notify their terror agents to lay low/leave the country?

Another tweep pointed, “I hope we don’t allow another prison break after all these. It is clear the nation’s CTU is compromised. Nobody in government ever gets arrested.