As reactions continue to trail the recent video clip showing an official of the Department of State Services, DSS, attached to the Minister of Interior, Gen. Abdulrahman Danbazau, cleaning his shoes at a public function, a group of northern youths have risen in stout defence of the Minister.
Mr. Danbazau had come under public opprobrium after the video of his shoe being cleaned by the DSS official, while he sat in his chair unperturbed, went viral on social media.
However, the youths, under the aegis of North-east Youth Peace Development Empowerment Initiative, NEYPDEI, exonerated the Minister of any wrongdoing.
National President of the group, Alhaji Kyari Idris Abubakar, in a statement in Lagos on Monday, said “I don’t think the minister has done anything wrong by allowing his Orderlies to clean his shoe during a public function in Abuja recently”.
According to Abubakar, those who understand the responsibility of the job of orderlies would know that what the DSS operative did was part of his job description.
“If you are enlisted into the job of a body guard it is your duty to ensure that the boss dress properly in the public and when you notice something wrong in his dressing, you correct it immediately”.
The NEYPDEI leader noted that before the cleaning of the shoe, the Minister, a retired army general and former Chief of Army Staff, had attended a function where his shoes became dusty and when the officer attached to him noticed it, he decided to clean of his own volition.
He frowned at the sensationalism attached to the episode especially by online media and bloggers, saying if they had a proper grasp of what happened on that day and the job of the DSS official which he was assigned, they would not criticize Mr. Danbazau unnecessarily.
He further described the publications as unnecessary and ignorant of the existing practice in the military.
