London police called in to arrest The Guardian newspaper reporter for wanting to interview Buhari

Security men at the Abuja House in London where President Buhari is staying, yesterday called the police to arrest a correspondent of The Guardian newspaper who had arrived the premises, demanding to see President Buhari so he could interview him.

According to a report by the newspaper, after the reporter arrived the Abuja house which is the official residence of the Nigerian High commissioner to the UK in the afternoon, demanding to see the president, a member of staff at the premises told him that the President wasn't there.

According to the report, at about 2:50pm, a black Mercedes Benz SUV arrived the premises and the occupant sitting by the driver rolled down the glass and asked the The Guardian correspondent, “why are you here?”

“When I told him that l was a reporter with The Guardian and l had come to see if the president was there and to interview him, he looked quite irritated and replied angrily: ‘he’s not here, you can’t see anybody here’.

Shortly afterwards, two police officers, Constables Marlett and Stock, arrived on their motorcycles with the intent to arrest the reporter. They took the reporter’s name and date of birth and subsequently made a check on the national database, before staying around for about 20 minutes and then left.

The reporter was later directed to go to the Embassy- Nigerian House at Northumberland Avenue to see any official there for any information he is seeking to get. “Somebody should be there,” he was told.

According to the reporter, at about 1:20 p.m., a man and a teenage-looking girl presumably President Buhari's daughter, arrived the gate and they were granted access.

When asked:”Is that the daughter of the president?”, the security officer replied “I don’t know.” When The Guardian reporter pressed the gate buzzer about five minutes later, the security man sounded angry and threatened to call the police. “You should realise this is a private place and I will call the police,” the security officer said. When he was immediately corrected and told that the reporter was standing outside in a public place, he then said:” l won’t speak to you again.”

However around 1:40 p.m., when two guests arrived, the reporter shook hand with one of them and asked, “have you come to see Mr. President?” He replied cheerfully saying “yes”, but he didn’t enter the compound. He left about 15 minutes later.

Another security officer came out shortly after and told the reporter to move away from the main gate. “Excuse me, you can’t just stand here,” he said.

The reporter stated that he sighted Senate President Bukola Saraki, leave the Abuja residence yesterday. Recall that President Buhari on his twitter handle, posted that he had a meeting with Saraki at the Abuja house yesterday.