NGSA Debunks Alleged Report Of 3.8 Magnitude Tremor In Abuja

The Nigeria Geological Survey Agency (NGSA), Sunday, debunked report of alleged 3.8 magnitude earth tremor in Gwagwalada and Abaji, satellite towns in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, as allegedly captured by an Earthquake Monitoring Station at OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State, on January 10, 2020.

This was stated by a Deputy Director of Geophysics Department, NGSA, Abah Usman, while on visit to the towns the earth tremor alleged occurred.

Usman said had it been there was such shaking of the earth in that part of Abuja residents would have been thrown into confusion and pandemonium, and the agency would have no doubt seriously alerted residents.

He said: “For you to effectively record earth quake, it’s not something that you will obtain from one single equipment, and each equipment can record vibration, so for you to get the place where the tremor occurred, you have to use at least minimum of three equipment.

“Now, if there is a problem in configuration, you can pick so many things beneath the earth, but there are those we now classify as tremors. If there is configuration problem, you may think an event is one that is not. Secondly, you can force an event to happen for whatever reason.

“We are now faulting it saying its manner of information dissemination did not follow the right channels. They should have confirmed and compared. Apart from NGSA, there are agencies like NASRDA that have metres and none of them has picked it and earth tremor is not something that can be hidden.

“What struck me the most was for an earth tremor of 3.8 magnitude to have taken place. If it happened it Abaji, that impact would have alerted someone in Jere, but nobody is aware of that impact and the distance is not much.”

Meanwhile, the paramount ruler of Abaji, Ona of Abaji, Alhaji Adamu Baba Yunusa, said everywhere is calm.

Yunusa further stated that he did not witness or experience any vibration not to talk of the alleged earth tremor in his kingdom.

Also speaking was the Acting Head of Department, Physics, University of Abuja, George Galayam, who described the alleged reports of earth tremor as basely, said those who came up with the report were not professionals on their job.

According to Galayam the equipment in his department picks any vibration around the area as it works in simple pendulum and transmits it to the computer as it sees waves.

“Nothing has happened in Abuja as far as this equipment is concerned. It has not recorded any signal or event around here. Imagine the distance from here to Ife. How can the system record an event in Abuja? Even the one at the NGSA did not even record it. I think that assertion is baseless”, he said.