Who protects the president? Controversy as DSS leaves Presidential Villa

The rivalry between the Department of State Services  (DSS) and the Nigerian Army came to a head on  Thursday when the aide-de-camp to President Muhammadu Buhari, an army officer, Lt Colonel Lawal Abubakar, through a memo, disengaged the DSS from providing close body protection for the president as they have always done for many years. It was the climax of the  distrust of the DSS operatives by the president’s  team since he won the election of  March 28.

With the emergence of Buhari as president, it was learnt that some persons in his inner circle  plotted the idea that since the DSS appeared to have been partisan in favour of the Jonathan (which they interpreted to mean the PDP), the DSS would be stripped of its constitutional role of providing close body security for the president and his family. In order to ensure that there was no vacuum…

It was gathered that the National  Security Adviser, who coordinates security matters for the president, has waded in to resolve the crisis. As a man who professes that his administration would be guided by the rule of law, it speaks well of Buhari  to abide by the provisions of not just the law but also  conventions. And such weighty decision on who provides close body security for the president and his family cannot be taken on the basis of emotions or ego  but on  sound judgment, what the law provides and convention.

– Vanguard