UK envoy explains reason for recent travel advisory to British nationals

The British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, has revealed the reason behind the recent travel advisory it issued to its citizens in Nigeria and Africa.

Laing who disclosed this in Abuja on Sunday, said the advisory was in line with the United Kingdom government’s security support to Nigeria in particular, and Africa in general.

Laing who was a special guest on a News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) Forum, said the initial threat that led to the issue of the advice warning British citizens on the security threat in Abuja had been well 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,” she said.

“But the particular threat we were worried about we are confident has 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.

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

“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.

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