For their negligence at the Argungu Fishing Festival that led to the protective radius of President Muhammadu Buhari been breached by an obsessed man, who claimed he was going for a handshake with his hero, the State Security Service bodyguards of the President are in hot soup.
In a terse statement to debunk allegations that the intruder was shot by its operatives, the Department of State Services (DSS) disclosed that it “has reviewed the video of the incident and is taking measures against its personnel found to have been negligent in their duties”.
The statement reads in full: “The Department of State Services wishes to dismiss reports making the rounds that presidential details killed the intruder that tried to break the security cordon to attack the President and Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR at Argungu, Kebbi State on 12th March 2020.
“The Service wishes to clarify the issue as follows;
• One Mohammed Jammil Guddare made overzealous but futile attempt to have an unauthorised handshake with the President thus breaching security protocols.
• He was stopped by Security details and arrested for thorough investigation. • Preliminary investigation reveals that he is not a hostile person but an overzealous enthusiast of the President.
• The service has reviewed the video of the incident and is taking measures against its personnel found to have been negligent in their duties”.
Recall that 30 years old Jamilu-Guddare gave reason on why he breached the President’s space, just before he took a group photo with other dignitaried.
” (Thursday) was a difficult day for me as a graduate of Public Administration who graduated with Second Class Upper, three points away from First Class, to take a risk to attempt to get the attention of Mr President despite the heavy army of security personnel and architecture in the venue.
“But I am sorry for the disturbances I caused, I admitted it was a breach of protocol out of emotional love for the person whom I believed to have been the most integrity nurtured, honest, incorruptible and right driven.
“Nobody in Nigeria and wider world has never questioned the consistency, integrity, honesty and righteousness of Mr President on either national issue or personal life.
“No one has ever questioned whether national resources, material resources have ever been squandered under his watch or by him. This is the reason, prerequisite, instinct and values that carried my heart to Mr President.”
Jamilu-Guddare assured that even if he had died yesterday he was happy to have met and achieved ambition of meeting the president one-on-one.
“Let me make it clear to the general public that I have not done so to secure a job and I am fulfilled to have achieved my mission of meeting the President one-on-one,” he said.
Jamilu-Gundare’s story appears not to tally with his move in the direction of former Governor of Kebbi State, Senator Adamu Aliero; and Governor Badaru of Jigawa State, but Minister of Information, Ali Mohammed and Governor Atiku Bagudu appeared to curiously back his position.
On his part, the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, said: “Jamilu is just a young man who is very passionate about Mr president and from what you can see this is a gentleman who has followed Mr President’s political career from day one but breached protocol pure and simple yesterday.”
Mohammed regretted about all the stories flying that Jamilu-Guddare was trying to attack Mr President, saying that such stories are actually false.
“Even the story that he has been shot by the police is false. He just wanted to see Mr President and commend him (for) what he has been doing, the only mistake he had was he breached the protocol,” the minister noted.
Similarly, Gov. Atiku Bagudu of Kebbi State said that Jamilu was an ardent Buharist who was yesterday in an exuberant attempt to greet Mr President, but was mistaken about the breach of protocol.
“It created the wrong atmosphere but I am glad you have all heard from him and quite honoured to meet him and assured him I and Minister will inform Mr President and beg him to grant an audience to Jamilu to visit him and shake hand with him,” he assured.