Ahead of the relocation of President
Muhammadu Buhari to the Presidential Villa, arrangements have been
concluded for the
Nigerian military to take over the activities of the
Strike Force, The PUNCH has learnt.
The Strike Force, which is a special
security outfit saddled with the responsibility of protecting the
President and the seat of power, is currently comprising only officials
of the Department of State Services.
A top Presidency official, who pleaded
anonymity, told our correspondent on Tuesday that soldiers might take
over their responsibility very soon.
The
source said a Lieutenant who will be leading 21 other military
personnel had already been transferred to the Strike Force with an
instruction to take over from the DSS officials.
He said, “DSS officials are the ones
that have been serving in the Strike Force. “With this development
military personnel will take over from them henceforth.
“We are aware that the situation is
causing a palpable tension as there is a possibility of a showdown. But
we are working hard to ensure that the situation did not degenerate.”
Operatives attached to the Strike Force
are always trained abroad on counter-assault and other techniques aimed
at making their jobs easier.
In explaining their duties, the source
said its operatives were the ones former President Olusegun Obasanjo
erroneously referred to as snippers in his widely-publicised open letter
to former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Another official, who is aware of the
arrangement, also said that machinery had also been put in place to
change the new Presidential Villa’s Administrative Officer, who was
deployed by the DSS about two weeks ago and replaced with a military
officer.
He said all DSS officials currently serving inside the Presidential Villa were not sure of their fate yet.
“The truth is that we are not sure of
anything yet. Whichever way, we will only act based on signals from our
headquarters whether to leave or remain inside the Villa,” he said.
Meanwhile, a major disagreement broke
out on Friday between DSS officials drafted from the Presidential Villa,
Abuja to the National Mosque, Abuja and some officials of a private
security firm.
The PUNCH had reported last
week that DSS officials were having a running battle with officials of
the security outfit who were reported to have been securing Buhari
before he was inaugurated as the President on May 29.
Their two earlier encounters in the same
mosque were settled amicably with officials of the firm asked to leave
the premises for DSS officials.
Our correspondent, however, learnt that
trouble started again last Friday when DSS officials also sighted the
officials of the private firm in the mosque.
A source claimed that trouble started when one of the officials of the firm was asked to identify himself.
“The DSS officials had asked the private
guard to identify himself. One thing led to the other and the private
guard was said to have held the necktie of one of the operatives. That
led to a fisticuffs. It took the timely intervention of senior officers
for the situation to be brought under control,” the source said.
Source: Punch Newspaper
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