President Goodluck Jonathan
A member of the elite Guards Brigade
caused a minor stir during the wreath laying ceremony for the Armed
Forces Remembrance Day Celebrations by President Goodluck Jonathan in
Abuja on Thursday.
The guard, who was part of the two
columns of soldiers drafted to form the firing party for the event,
was seen fidgeting with his gun which got stuck in the back of his belt.
In the process, the nozzle of the
gun lowered, prompting two members of the Presidential Guard, who were
standing behind the President’s Aide-de-Camp, who felt he had a negative
intention, to form a human shield around the President.
Another officer, believed to be a member
of the Presidential Guard, quickly moved to pull the soldier from the
column, but had a rethink after explanations by the soldier about his
problem.
The Presidential Guard then assisted the soldier to release the rope attached to the butt of the gun from his uniform.
However, the President, who was in the
middle of the two rows of the firing party in front of the Monument of
the Unknown Soldier, was not ruffled by the incident .
After the stir which occurred on the
third and last round of the shooting of the 21-gun salute later,
Jonathan freed the traditional white pigeons from a huge cage at the
cenotaph.
He later signed the 2015 Register for celebrations.
It was learnt that the bullets usually
used for the traditional military ceremony are blank bullets which lack
the capacity to inflict injuries.
Our correspondent also gathered that the
officers in charge of the ceremony normally embarked on a holistic
weeding process and psychological screening of those to take part in
that aspect of the ceremony.
The event which held at the cenotaph
opposite the Eagle Square at the Central Area, was attended by the top
echelons of the security forces and government officials.
Among those who also laid wreaths
were Vice-President Namadi Sambo; the President of the
Senate, David Mark; and the Deputy Speaker of the House of
Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, who represented the Speaker, Aminu
Tambuwal.
Others were the Chief Justice of
Nigeria, Mahmud Mohammed; the Minister of Defence, Gen. Aliyu Gusau; the
Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Alex Badeh; the Chief of Army
Staff, Lt. Gen. Kenneth Minimah; the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice-Admiral
Usman Jibrin; the Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Adesola Amosu;
the Doyen of the Diplomatic community and the Chairman of the Nigerian
Legion, Micah Gayya.
Security personnel conducted
painstaking searches on workers whose offices are located in the
three-arms zone before allowing them in.
The security operatives locked down the
two major roads in the Three-Arms Zone – Ahmadu Bello and Shehu Shagari
ways – to prevent vehicles from passing through the cenotaph while the
event lasted.
A planned protest by the Ex-Service men
Welfare Association did not take place as the event held smoothly
without any interruption or disruption.
Meanwhile, the Presidential Committee
set up to review the National Defence Policy has concluded arrangements
to hold public presentations in three states.
The Chairman of the Committee,
Mohammed Umaru, said during a press briefing in Abuja on Thursday, that
the event scheduled for Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu, would hold
simultaneously from January 21 to 22 .
Umaru said that the decision to open
public hearing on NDP was informed by a need to have many
Nigerians contribute to the policy.
Jonathan had inaugurated the committee
on November 20, 2014 to review the policy because of the social,
economic and security changes that have taken place in the country.
He said that external developments and
challenges in the global arena had direct impact on the nation’s
security and national defence.
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