Why Officials Who Attended Kyari’s Burial Were Barred From Aso Villa – Presidency

The Presidency has explained why officials who attended the burial of the late Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Abba Kyari, were barred from the State House.

Kyari, who was buried on Saturday, died from complications arising from Coronavirus Disease on Friday.

He was buried on Saturday at Gudu Cemetry in Abuja according to Islamic rites.

BIGPEN had reported that the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Saturday, called for arrest and isolation for 14 days all those who participated in the movement of Kyari’s dead body from Lagos, those at defense house and the hundreds at the burial ground.

This was amidst reports that Buhari’s government violated the World Health Organization’s (WHO’s) COVID-19 protocol and federal government’s regulations on how to dispose the dead bodies of infected people.

Prior to the ‘crowded burial rite’, a presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, said the burial would be in “strict observation” of the protocol put in place for the burial of coronavirus victims by the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and the health ministry.

But footage and pictures available from the burial showed otherwise. Official advice of social distancing was defied while more than twenty people were at the “social gathering”.

In fact, Garba was conspicuously seen in front with other sympathizers.

BIGPEN understands that since the event, some reports say some top government officials were denied access to the presidential villa after they attended the burial.

Apparently reacting to a story that Presidential Aides were barred from Aso Rock after Kyari’s burial, Garba Shehu, in his verified Twitter handle, confirmed that he was actually barred from the State House after the burial of the late Chief of Staff.

He said that the directives was in line with the standard rules put in place by the National Center for Disease Control, NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health.

He tweeted: “There is nothing extraordinary about those of us who attend Abba Kyari’s funeral being advised to distance ourselves from the Villa.

“This is in line with the standard rules put in place by the National Center for Disease Control, NCDC and the Federal Ministry of Health.

“You do these things to stop the spread of Coronavirus.

“For the most part, the Villa has operated digitally in the last few weeks so there is really nothing new to this.”