The Presidency on Sunday explained that standard protocol was behind the decision by security officials to stop attendees of the burial ceremony of the late Chief of Staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, from entering the State House.
Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu, said through his verified twitter handle @GarShehu. He tweeted: “There is nothing extraordinary about those of us who attend Abba Kyari’s funeral being advised to distance ourselves from the Villa.“This is in line with the standard rules put in place by the National Center for Disease Control, @NCDCgov and the Federal Ministry of Health.
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You do these things to stop the spread of #Coronavirus. “For the most part, the Villa has operated digitally in the last few weeks so there is really nothing new to this.” According to him, those who attended the event were supposed to proceed on self-isolation immediately after the ceremonies. In response to journalists who wanted the true picture of things, the presidential media aide said: “It is true.
It’s nothing that anyone should be angry about. They were just obeying rules. We have all attended the burial of a close friend in this season, anyone will know that after such occasion, you are meant to proceed on self-isolation. So, what happened was standard protocol.
“If you observed, we have mostly been working digitally, most of our works have been done digitally, in observance of the social distance advice”, he said. Shehu was reacting to an online report by SaharaReporters that senior State House officials were denied access into the Presidential Villa, Abuja after attending the burial ceremony, which included prayers on the corpse of Kyari at the Defence Guest House, in Maitama and interment at Gudu Cemetery.
SaharaReporters, had reported that key aides to President Muhammadu Buhari, who attended the burial of the late Chief of Staff, incurred the President’s displeasure for allegedly violating Nigeria Centre for Diseases Control (NCDC) regulations, especially social distancing. According to the report, among those who attended the burial and were turned back from accessing the State House were State House Chief Protocol Officer, Ambassador Lawal Kazaure, Special Assistant to the President, Yusuf Sabiu (AKA, Tunde) a nephew to the President, Musa Haro Daura, and Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to the, Garba Shehu.
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Others are National Security Adviser, Babagana Monguno, Director-General of National Intelligence Agency, Mr Ahmad Rufai, and Personal Assistant on New Media to President Buhari, Bashir Ahmad, among several more persons. Kyari died Friday of complications from the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) disease in a Lagos hospital and was buried in Abuja on Saturday. Many observed that there was zero observance of social distancing at the late chief of Staff former official residence and at the burial site.
They also observed that in clear violation of NCDC regulation of not more than 20 to 50 people at event of that nature, the ceremony attracted a huge crowd.