Nigeria Content Online

Last week’s bomb
blast in Abuja has taught residents of the Federal Capital Territory
(FCT) to learn to take extra security measures by sleeping with one eye
wide open, such that they would not hesitate to push the panic button
at the slight suspicion of any threat to their safety.

Yesterday, there
was massive panic around the vicinity of the NNPC Towers, the
headquarters of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, following
rumours of a bomb scare within the imposing edifice, located along the
ever-busy Herbert Macaulay Way, in the Central Business District of the
city.

Most commercial
vehicle operators and other motorists who saw a huge build-up of
vehicles and human traffic around the NNPC building went to town with
the information that the masterminds of last Friday’s bomb blast had,
perhaps, relocated their trade to the building.

According to the
rumour, work had been forced to hastily close for the day, while staff
were being hurriedly evacuated as a result of the “incident.”

Majority of the
people around the vicinity of the building did not wait to confirm the
veracity of the speculation, as they made frantic turns in the opposite
direction in the bid to escape.

Security drill it was

Words spread fast,
as the whole town was engulfed in palpable panic, with some people who
may not have gone near the area telling others they met heading in the
direction of the NNPC building to make a detour to other places.

But NNPC’s
spokesperson, Levi Ajuonuma, in a terse response to NEXT inquiries,
asked members of the public to disregard the rumour for what it is.

“Please, disregard
such rumour. We did a simple routine security drill and people see it
as a bomb threat,” Mr. Ajuonuma said in a text message.

NEXT gathered that,
as part of the need to prevent a repeat of last week’s ugly incident,
most key government establishments and organisations have taken extra
precaution by carrying out various measures to update their security
systems, to prepare them for any posssibility, including a bomb
incident.

It was learnt that
as part of its security precaution, the security department of the
corporation had organised a programme to reinforce its security system
to ascertain safety of staff and members of the public.

Part of the measures, NEXT learnt, was to ensure that all vehicles
attempting to enter the premises were subjected to a thorough extra
security checks, an exercise that caused a long traffic snarl around
the entrance of the headquarters building.