President Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the police to investigate the recent crisis involving the First Lady, Aisha Buhari and some security aides in the Presidential Villa.
The Presidency announced this on Sunday, June 14, 2020, in a statement by Garba Shehu the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity.
On Saturday, Pulse reported how gunshots fired by Aisha’s security aide, Usman Shugaba in the Villa escalated a heated argument between the First Lady and Buhari’s Personal Assistant, Yusuf Sabiu also known as Tunde.
The First Lady, her children and her security aides had gone to Sabiu’s residence in the Villa to ask him to self-isolate after returning from a trip to Lagos.
But Tunde felt the First Lady was picking on him, saying he was not the only occupant of the Presidential Villa that travelled during the lockdown measure put in place to curb the spread of coronavirus.
The encounter degenerated into a heated argument as Aisha’s ADC reportedly fired gunshots while trying to apprehend the President’s PA.
Following the gunshots, the Inspector General of Police, Adamu Mohammed received a security report on the incident and ordered the arrest of Aisha’s ADC and all the security aides that went to Sabiu’s residence with the First Lady.
The crisis got messier when the First Lady took to Twitter on Friday to call on the Inspector General of Police to release her aides in order not to expose them to coronavirus in police custody.
But in a statement on Sunday, Garba said the incident happened outside the main residence of the president.
Describing the incident as unfortunate, Garba said President Muhammadu Buhari was not exposed to the danger of any deadly infection or crisis among the occupants of the Villa.
The statement reads, “The Presidency wishes to acknowledge concerns expressed by several members of the public regarding the recent incident among the occupants of the State House which escalation led to the arrest of some staff by the police.
“This is to assure everyone that the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, @MBuhari, is not, and was not at any time in any form of danger arising, either from deadly infections or the reported incident by security personnel which is currently under investigation.
“This particular incident happened outside the main residence of the President.
He added that the president has ordered a proper investigation into the crisis, saying it is shocking that critics have started using ‘such a minor’ to justify attacks on the person of President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration.
He said, “Armed guards and other security personnel assigned to the State House receive the necessary training of especially weapons handling and where they come short, their relevant agencies have their rules and regulations to immediately address them.
“Having authorized the proper investigation to be carried out into this unfortunate incident by the Police, the President has acted in compliance with the rule of law.
“That a minor occurrence is being used by some critics to justify attacks on the government and the person of President Muhammadu Buhari beggars belief.
“In this particular instance, the President says the law should be allowed to take its course”.