By Haruna Salami
The Senate has expressed dismay at the loss of a total of 3,907 assault rifles across Police formations throughout Nigeria.
The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, while appearing before the Senate Public Accounts Committee (SPAC) to answer Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) on “loss of fire arms and ammunition” could not give satisfactory answers to the audit query.
IGP Egbetokun was represented by Assistant Inspector General of Police ( AIG) Suleiman Adul in charge of Police account and budget.
According to the representative of the AuGF Mr. Olu Samuel Godwin the audit report for 2019 observed from “the review of arms movement register, monthly returns of arms and ammunition and ammunition register at the armoury section revealed that the total number of lost firearms as reported as at December 2018 stood at 178,459 pieces.
“Out of this number, 88,078 (Eighty eight thousand and seventy eight) were AK-47 rifles.
“Three Thousand Nine Hundred and Seven assorted rifles and pistols across different police formations could not be accounted for as at January 2020”.
The source of the Auditor General’s report is “extract from schedule of returns of arms/loss of arms as at January, 2020.
“Formal report on the loss of firearms through dully completed Treasury Form 146 (loss of stores) were not presented for examination”.
Unfortunately, “records obtained from force armament at the Force headquarters showed 21 Police Mobile Force (PMF) Squadron, Abuja did not report a single case of missing firearm, whereas, schedule of missing arms obtained from the same PMF showed a total number of forty six (46) missing arms between year 2000 and February 2019”.
The Police vehemently tried to meet with the committee behind closed door, but majority of the senators opted for a public hearing because the committee is called “public account committee”.
Deputy Chairman of SPAC, Senator Peter Nwebonyi, who presided over the meeting expressed dissatisfaction with Police explanation that most of the officers were not at the Police headquarters at that time.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North), who admitted that “police is our friend”, however took exception to the fact that the leading security outfit could not account for about 4,000 missing rifles.
“The attempt by AIG to take cover or refuge under security issues is completely inappropriate because you know more than us.
“You should be very worried that about 4000 arms some of which could have been used by criminals to compound the security situation we are facing as a people, but as we speak, you don’t know who is responsible,” he said.
It is your duty to go and find out. The least is expected of you and I see that. You should track these missing arms. The officers who stole them must be disclose
“When you arrest people who stole rats and rabbits, you parade them. So, if a police officer is responsible or are responsible for missing of these number of arms, you have an obligation not only to disclose, but to apprehend and arraign the person.
“This country must operate under the same level of rule of law. The police is supposed to be our friends but let me ask you a personal question. How did you feel that our 4000 AK-47 procured by tax payers money are missing? What is worrisome is that these money used to procure arms for protecting Nigerians is now lost”, he concluded.
Therefore, the SPAC asked the Police to return next Monday to defend the serious matter or it will sustain the query.
