From Molly Kilete, Abuja
The Defence Headquarters has said there is no cause for fear over an endurance trek by soldiers in Abuja this week.
This followed rising tension in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja following mesages circulating on the social media of plans by soldiers to block the Kubwa Highway and the Abuja/keffi road from Monday as they embark on the endurance trek.
Some residents of the FCT woke up Sunday morning with SMS and WhatsApp messages on their mobile phones alerting them, especially those living around Kubwa, Nyayan, Masaka, and Keffi axis, to avoid these routes as the roads would be blocked by the soldiers.
As a result, residents of these areas decided to stay indoors so as not to be caught in any unforseen circumstance.
But reacting, the Defence Headquarters(DHQ), said there was no cause for alarm and called on residents not to panic and go about their lawful businesses.
Director Defence Information, Major General Jerry Akpor, who made this known said the soldiers were embarking on an endurance trek which is a routine exercise aimed at testing their physical and combat fitness.
Akpor, in a telephone interview with Daily Sun, yesterday, said there was no truth in the report that soldiers would block the expressway. He said the soldiers would use part of the road for the duration of the exercise.
“It is part of annual physical training test to confirm the physical fitness of every personnel for the tasking job of soldiering in the year. They have to do push-up, sit-up, heaving and at the end of it, everybody does endurance trek over some twenty, thirty kilometers to confirm their fitness.
“So it’s part and parcel of military training. We are not going to block the roads as it is being speculated. We will take part of the road, it is a dual carriage road, so there will still be traffic only that part of the road would be taken. So people should not panic because there is nothing to panic about, it is a routine exercise in the military and it will not last for too long,” he said.