Nigerian who scaled White House fence ‘mentally ill’

Father of Dominic Adesanya, who was accused of scaling White House fence, has blamed the young man’s action on his mental state.

Adesanya (pictured), a 23-year-old Nigerian from Bel Air, Maryland, was arrested on Wednesday night by the United States secret service agents after jumping the north lawn fence of the White House.

According to Guardian, the White House was placed in temporary lockdown after the incident.

Video footage of the incident showed the man lifting his shirt as if to show agents that he was unarmed.

The man was also seen attacking one of the secret service dogs that brought him down after scaling the fence.

Responding to the incident, Ed Donovan, spokesperson of the secret service, said: “At approximately 7:16 pm, an individual climbed the North fence-line of the White House.

“The individual was immediately taken into custody on the North lawn of the White House by secret service uniformed division K-9 teams and uniformed division officers. The subject is being transported to a local hospital for evaluation.”

Speaking with ABC 2, the father of the 23-year-old said he and his wife knew that their son was mentally disturbed and they had been trying to get help.

“It’s hard to be in your house and not know if the person you’re living with is trustworthy and to know they’re mentally disturbed like he is,” he told the network.

“We wanted to get him help, and we’ve been asking the government to give him help and nobody has wanted to help us get help for him.”

This incident comes less than five weeks after a man armed with a knife scaled the fence and made it inside the White House.

The September 19 incident raised security questions, which led to the resignation of Julia Pierson, head of the secret service.