ABUJA, the federal capital, went quiet on Friday, following a mass exodus of residents out from the city over fears of attack from the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) and the Boko Haram.
Investigations by Saturday Tribune revealed that as early as Thursday morning, panicky residents had begun moving out of FCT to other parts of the country considered safer.
The exodus was so much that it created a heavy traffic jam in Gwagwalada, reminiscent of Christmas travels when residents go home in large numbers to celebrate.
Though some of the residents used the opportunity offered by the declaration of Monday as public holidays by the Federal Government to mark the 51st Independence anniversary to have a re-union with their kits and kin outside the territory, it was gathered that most of those who left, travelled out for fear of uncertainty.
MEND had warned that it would bomb Abuja again today, one year after it claimed responsibility for detonating the bomb that killed many people near the Eagle Square, Abuja where the 50th independence anniversary was taking place.
Boko Haram members, on their part, had not made any similar threat, but nobody knows what they may be up to today.
On Friday, Abuja city had become quiet and the usual traffic jam in the city had disappeared, though, when Saturday Tribune visited some parks, the travellers played down the motive of their spirited efforts to leave the FCT.
In Kubwa, a civil servant who did not want her name in print, stated that she was travelling to maximize the period to see her family in Lagos whom she claimed not to have seen for a while.
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