A new report has ‘reaffirmed’ the authenticity of the reports that President Muhammadu Buhari removed
the State Security Service (SSS) personnel from his inner security
detail and stationed them as mere guards outer the perimeter of the
presidential villa.
The president’s spokesman, Femi Adesina,
had, last week, refuted the claims that Buhari expelled the SSS
officers because he does not trust them, and believing that they may
still be loyal to the past president, Goodluck Jonathan.
Adesina
explained that what happed to the security personnel in the villa was
just “routine adjustments.” He did not however mention that the SSS
officers were removed from the president’s primary security detail.
Premium Times
confirmed that the SSS men were barred from the villa, claiming it
sighted a memo on Friday, June 26, which contains the directive.
The report said the memo was written by Buhari’s Aide de Camp, Mohammed Abubakar, on June 24 and distributed to key officials in the Villa.
It reportedly stated that from that day, “DSS personnel have been redeployed from some duty beats/locations.”
The
memo, according to the report, clearly stated that security tasks
initially being handled by SSS officials are now to be handled by
officials of other security agencies.
Abubakar said personnel of the Armed Forces and the police, who were trained as Presidential Body Guards, PBGs, are to “provide close/immediate protection for Mr. President henceforth”.
The
Aide de Camp listed some of the areas to be taken care of by the PBGs
to include, Admin Reception, Service Chiefs Gate, Residence Reception,
Rear Resident, Resident Gate, Office Reception, C-In-C Control Office,
ACADE Gate, C-IN-C Control Gate and Panama.
“However,
the personnel of the DSS in conjunction with other security forces are
to man other duty beats/locations located within the immediate outer
perimeter of the Presidential Villa,” he memo reportedly said, without providing reasons for the action.