UK security advisory to support Nigeria

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, has said that the recent travel advisory on the security situation in Nigeria was in line with the United Kingdom government’s security support to Nigeria and Africa.

 Laing disclosed this when she appeared as a special guest on the News Agency of Nigeria Forum on Sunday in Abuja.

 Laing said the initial threat that led to the issue of the advice warning British Citizens on the security threat in Abuja had been managed and the advice reverted.

“The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, has been green all the time, until we were made aware of the specific security in Abuja and we have now reverted back to green.

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“But the particular threat we were worried about we are confident have been managed.

“It is obviously for the Nigerian government to lead on this, the various agencies are working incredibly hard to pick up intelligence to process and to follow the leads.

“Our job as the UK is to support Nigeria, and we have a security defence partnership with Nigeria, which has many, many different aspects.

“One of the aspects is support on counterterrorism. So we do military training, for example on counter explosives, to how your soldiers can spot the explosives and dismantle it if they see one.

“So, we are here to support, but it is obviously for the Nigerian government and the military to lead on security,” Laing said.

Responding to if the UK government liaised with Nigerian security agencies before issuing the travel advise, Laing said that the UK informed the Nigerian government before making it public.

“But we have a responsibility to our citizens to alert them if we are concerned about a security threat. But of course, that advice is available to everybody, anyone can sign up for a travel alert from us.

“So, you have travel advice, everyone has travel advice and so we talked carefully to the government of Nigeria but we also have to alert our citizens and indeed anyone who wants to read,” Laing said.

NAN