Residents of Abaji in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja have denied reports of an earth tremor in the area.
According to them, nothing of the such happened on Friday, days before or after the date reported by a doctor at the University of Ife.
Muhammed Sani, who claims to have lived in Abaji for over 32 years, said that he was hearing of the tremor for the first time and was in his residence, which is about a kilometer from the reported Epi centre, all day on Friday.
He said: “I did not feel the earth shake, nothing happened here and I did not hear of anything.”
The Ona of Abaji, Adamu Yunusa, also disputed the report when journalists visited Abaji on Sunday.
According to him: “I did not hear or feel any tremor on Friday, it is good you came to confirm from us but I am not aware of any of such activity in Abaji, in fact I am just hearing of the report from you, I have not gotten such a report from my people or felt any tremor.”
The district head of the Epicentre where the tremor was reported to have occurred, which is at the Abattoir phase three, Musa Yakubu, also disputed the report, saying that he spent his time on Friday between his home and the mosque and did not feel any form of tremor.
Acting Head of Department Physics, University of Abuja George Nyam Phd, who is in charge of the tremor centre, said that the assertion that an earthquake occurred in Abuja was baseless.
He said: “The equipment has been able to record quite a number of events but of recent we have not had any activity. The equipment was installed by NGSA three years ago as a pilot scheme for us to observe and record events around the university and Abuja Municipal.
“When we heard about the tremor in Abuja, we rushed here to check, we noticed the equipment was working but no event recorded.
“The principal behind the equipment is a simple pendulum, it picks up on any vibration around, records and the receiver transmits it to the computer in form of waves.
“So nothing has happened in Abuja as far as this instrument is concerned, it has not given us any signal around here, there was no tremor in Abuja.
“How can Ife, Imagine the distance from here to Ife, Imagine the same equipment recording an event that occurred in Abuja and ours will not pick it up, including the equipment at NGSA, I think the assertion is baseless.”
Deputy Director Special Duties Abba Usman at the agency said that for an earthquake to be effectively recorded or pinned to a location, it has to be calculated with a minimum of three equipment well-spaced and triangular.
He said that so many activities go on under the earth surface that are not tremors, adding that for a 3.8 magnitude earthquake to occur, the vibration must be felt and it will be seen on the buildings around the vicinity.
