Some security staff at the Abuja House, London, on Sunday called the
\npolice to arrest Tunde Oyedoyin, a correspondent of Guardian, who visited
\nthe place and demanded to see President Muhammadu Buhari and possibly
\ninterview him.<\/p>\n
Abuja House has been Buhari\u2019s residence since he began his UK vacation.
\nAccording to the correspondent, when he told a member of staff that he had
\ncome to see the president, his response was: \u201cAs far as I\u2019m concerned,
\nhe\u2019s not here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The journalist said at 2:50pm, a black Mercedes jeep arrived, and the
\noccupant sitting by the driver rolled down the glass and asked him, \u201cWhy
\nare you here?\u201d<\/p>\n
The reporter said after identifying himself and stating his mission, he
\nwas told: \u201cHe\u2019s not here, you can\u2019t see anybody here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Oyedoyin said when he arrived just a few minutes past 1pm, and asked to
\nspeak to the high commissioner, he was directed to Nigerian House at
\nNorthumberland Avenue.<\/p>\n
He said 20 minutes later, when a man and a teenage-looking girl wearing
\nglasses pressed the buzzer, a security officer opened the gate for the
\nduo.<\/p>\n
Oyedoyin said he inquired: \u201cIs that the daughter of the president?\u201d and
\nthe staff replied: \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reporter said when he pressed the buzzer about five minutes later, the
\nsecurity man sounded angry and threatened to call the police.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou should realise this is a private place and I will call the police,\u201d
\nhe quoted the security guard as saying.<\/p>\n
Oyedoyin said when he made it clear that he was standing outside a public
\nplace, the guard said:\u201d l won\u2019t speak to you again.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the security operative made good his threat of inviting the police.<\/p>\n
According to Oyedoyin, two police officers were called in, and when they
\narrived, they took his name and date of birth, and subsequently made a
\ncheck on the national database.<\/p>\n
Efforts made to reach the Nigerian high commission to hear its own side of
\nthe story did not yield the desired result, as calls to a telephone line
\nfound on the commission\u2019s website did not go through.<\/p>\n
Buhari was scheduled to return to the country on February 5 \u2013 at the end
\nof his 10-day vacation \u2013 but he extended the time indefinitely, citing
\nadvice from his doctor that he should wait to get his test results as the
\nreason for his decision.<\/p>\n
Shortly after the president left on January 19, the rumour mill was agog
\nthat he had died, but the presidency deployed some strategies like
\nreleasing pictures of Buhari receiving guests in London.<\/p>\n
High profile politicians have visited the president in UK.<\/p>\n
Some of them are Daisy Danjuma, a former senator; Ibikunle Amosun, Ogun
\nstate governor; Bisi Akande, former governor of Osun state; Bola Tinubu,
\nnational leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC); Senate President
\nBukola Saraki, and House Speaker Yakubu Dogara.<\/p>\n
Buhari transferred power to Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo before he left
\nfor the UK.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some security staff at the Abuja House, London, on Sunday called the police to arrest Tunde Oyedoyin, a correspondent of Guardian, who visited the place and demanded to see President…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":56269,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-56268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"\n