RAJAB 28, 1429 A.H.
THURSDAY JULY 31 2008
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Presidential Villa: Security detail bars journalists from interview session
There was a mild drama in the Presidential Villa, Abuja, when a security detail to President Umaru Yar’Adua prevented journalists from an interview session with visiting President Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi.
Yar’Adua had approved the interview after a closed-door meeting with the visitor.
The detail, simply called Richard, cordoned off the area leading to the president’s office where visiting heads of governments are usually interviewed.
The detail told the journalists that they would ``never get an interview here today’’.
Yar’adua had earlier told the journalists to wait at the entrance to his office for the interview with the visitor.
But as the two leaders stepped out of the building, Yar’adua was apparently surprised that the journalists were not there.
The journalists, who were standing at a distance on the orders of the detail, had to rush back for the interview as the two leaders stood waiting for them.
Richard had said that his order was the last as far as the area in question was concerned.
Even when he was informed that the president had approved the interview, the detail insisted that it would not hold.
The Chairman of the State House Press Corps, Mr Daniel Idonor, condemned the action, saying that the corps would not take it lying low.
He said the corps would officially protest the excesses of the detail.
