According to Catriona Laing, the British High Commissioner to Nigeria, the latest travel warning regarding the security situation in Nigeria was consistent with the UK Government's security assistance to Africa and Nigeria.
Laing made this disclosure on Sunday in Abuja when she appeared as a special guest on the News Agency of Nigeria Forum.
According to Laing, the initial threat that prompted the advice warning British citizens about the security threat in Abuja was handled and the advice was reversed.
She said: “The FCT and Abuja have been green all the time until we were made aware of the specific security in the Abuja, FCT area, and we have now reverted back to green.
“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.
“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 for counterterrorism.
“So we do military training, for example, on counter IED to how your soldiers can spot IED 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.”
Responding to if the UK Government liaised with Nigerian security agencies before issuing the travel advice, Laing said that the UK informed the Nigerian Government before making it public.
She added: “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.”