President
Muhammadu Buhari has ordered the stoppage of special allowance for security
personnel in the Presidential Villa, investigations by The Punch have
revealed.
Before
now, all security personnel posted to the Villa were being paid what is known
as Risk and Hazard Allowance.
However,
since his assumption of office, President Buhari was said to have refused to
pay the money to them.
During
the last regime, our correspondents gathered that senior security officers
covering the Villa were said to have been collecting between N75,000 and
N50,000 while their junior ones received between N30,000 and N25,000 on a
monthly basis.
One
of the officers manning the Villa told one of our correspondents that the ADC
to the President, Lt. Col. Muhammed Abubakar, summoned sectional heads of all
the security agencies manning different positions within the Villa to inform
them about the stoppage of the allowance.
It
was gathered that the ADC decided to call the sectional heads following rumours
making the rounds among the operatives that the money meant for the affected
officers was being embezzled.
One
of the affected officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “About two
weeks ago, an assistant superintendent of one of the agencies called us and
told us that the ADC met all the heads of the security agencies in the Villa
where the news was broken to them.
“Our
own head also met us and warned us to desist from carrying rumours about the
money. He said that the ADC told them that no money was being released to the
guards, as being speculated.”
It
was further gathered that the leaders of the affected security organs were told
that the officers manning the Villa should be contented with their monthly
salaries.
Besides,
it was also gathered that the Chief Security Officer, Bashir Abubarkar, had
written two letters to the National Security Adviser, Gen. Babagana
Monguno(retd.) on the issue of the RCA, but was said to have been told that
such allowance was illegal and that the President had asked that it be stopped.
Efforts
made to get the reaction of the Presidency failed as calls made to the
telephone number of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media, Mallam
Garba Shehu, were not answered.
He
also didn’t respond to a text message sent to him as well.
However,
a source at the Presidency said the issue was being looked into.
He
said the office of the NSA had been mandated to look into the matter and report
to the Presidency on the matter.
“The
report is true, but I can tell you that the matter is being looked into and I
can tell you that we are going to do something about it,” the source added.
But
speaking on the development, a former Commissioner of Police, Alhaji Abubakar
Tsav, endorsed the President’s decision, saying that the security personnel at
the Presidential Villa were given “a lot of allowances and giving them extra
money is like buying their conscience.”
The
retired CP observed that many security operatives on the streets get no extra
money apart from their salaries, stressing that the allowances given to
Presidential guards was the reason many security officials were struggling to
serve at the Aso Villa.
He
said, “The security officers on the road get nothing and giving the security
personnel at the Villa extra allowance is like buying their conscience. They
won’t tell the truth. they would only tell the President what he wants to
hear.”
But
a former DSS Director, Mike Ejiofor, disagreed, saying the Presidential Villa
“is a special beat” which should attract extra stipends for the security men
serving there.
Source:punchng
We are still waiting oo Bros.
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