The Presidency has revealed it ignored the social distance order at the burial ceremony of former Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Abba Kyari.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that many Nigerians attacked the Federal Government for defying social distance rule in order to cushion the effect of Coronavirus.
Speaking to State House correspondents on Saturday evening, Buhari’s media aide, Garba Shehu, said the crowd that attended the ceremony were not invited.
He noted that the burial was delayed in their attempt to maintain social distancing but had to begin as more people kept coming into the cemetery.
The presidential aide added that the federal government could not have invited security agents to chase the crowd away.
“Was there any invitation for the public to come for the burial? Go back to my Twitter handle and read what I posted. From 10am, when we picked up the body at the airport, we sent a message out that the funeral will be private and that the public should please go and pray for Abba Kyari.
“We also said no condolence visits to the President and family. What can we do? Are we going to invite soldiers to flog people who came to pay their last respect to the man?
“We didn’t invite people. We were trying to move people back and observe social distancing and it was delaying the funeral. We just have to do it because people are not ready to leave. What are we going to do?” he asked.
