Drama As Rifle Mishap Rattles Presidential Guards, Forcing A Human Shield Around Jonathan

A slight mishap involving the rifle of a soldier in the firing party during yesterdays’ wreath laying ceremony at the Armed Forces Remembrance Day (AFRD) in Abuja made the presidential guards form a human shield around President Goodluck Jonathan.

The incident happened shortly after President Jonathan and other top government functionaries took turns laying wreaths at the foot of the cenotaph in honour of fallen heroes in the nation’s military.

President Jonathan who was in the middle of the firing party made up of soldiers from all the three Services of the armed forces, stood looking at the monument of the Unknown Soldier opposite the Eagles Square.

Drama started during the 21 gun salute, when the rifle butt of a soldier in the firing party who was on the president’s right side got tangled in his uniform, preventing him from lifting the rifle to his shoulder.

The mishap with the rifle tilted the posture of the soldier which caused the barrel and muzzle of the gun to turn towards President Jonathan who was standing in the middle of the firing party.

A plain clothes security agent standing behind the firing party immediately intervened from behind the soldier; he first tried to correct the soldier’s skewed posture, he then succeeded in untangling what may have been the lower sling swivel (rope attached to the butt of the gun) from the soldiers’ uniform.

At the same time, two presidential guards initially standing behind the President’s aide-de-camp (ADC) also moved to the right flank of the president, placing their bodies between the President and the soldier, as the 21 gun salute continued.

However, President Jonathan appeared calm and unaffected by the incident which happened in seconds, after the firing party concluded the 21 gun salute.

The President completed the ceremony by freeing symbolic white doves and signing the 2015 Armed Forces Remembrance Day Register.