The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) on Tuesday failed to tell the Senate the whereabout of 3,907 AK47 assault rifles which disappeared while in its custody.
A breakdown of the missing firearms shows that 601 disappeared from 15 Training Institutions, 42 from 23 Police formations, 1,514 from 37 Police Command, 29 from Zone 1 to 12, 1, 721 from Police Mobile Force (PMF) 1 to 68.
The NPF led by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, was physically uncomfortable when an Audit Report of different Police formations by the office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) was read to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts.
The IGP had apologized to members of the committee for not honouring previous invitations sent to him for explanations on queries issued the Police on alleged financial infractions in the 2019 Audit reports.
Egbetokun had after his apology to the Committee and oath taken, nominated Assistant Inspector General of Police in Charge of Public Accounts and Budget, AIG Suleiman Abdul to answer to the eight queries issued against the Police by the office of Auditor – General.
While the Committee Chaired by its Deputy Chairman, Senator Peter Nwaebonyi (APC Ebonyi North) vacated query one which borders on N1.136 billion contract splitting and stood down query two which borders on alleged non – execution of N925 million contract, it sustained query three which borders on alleged missing 3,907 assault rifles many of which were AK 47.
The peace of the room was however shattered when the representative of the Auditor General in the query read to the hearing of Committee members and AIG Suleiman Abdul that as at January 2020 as contained in the 2019 Audit Report, a total of 3, 907 assault rifles were unaccounted for, by the Police.
According to him, “the total number of lost firearms as at December 2018 stood at 178,459 out of which 88,078 were AK47 Rifles.
“Apparently overwhelmed by the barrage of questions fired at him, AIG Abdul sought for a closed door session which was however rejected by majority of the Committee members, from the Deputy Chairman who presided over the session to Senator Adams Oshiomhole and Senator Joel Onawakpo – Thomas.
Specifically, in rejecting AIG Abdul’s request, Senator Nwaebonyi said no closed door session would be allowed under him.
“This is a public accounts committee that has no room for closed door sessions. In the United States of America proceedings of the Public Accounts Committee are televised live. So whatever response the AIG wants to make on the missing assault rifles should be done in the full glare of all, particularly the journalists, he said.
Also rejecting the AIG request for a closed door session, Senator Oshiomhole in his remarks said “The Police is known for arresting and parading thieves of Rats and Rabbits, which is expected of them on the missing assault rifles.
“The AIG should let Nigerians know steps that had been taken by the Police on the missing assault rifles over the years, who and who were involved and level of recovery made “.
The AIG was only able to account for 15 out of the 3, 907 missing assault riffles, 14 of which according to him were lost through 14 personnel that were killed in active service and one in 1998 which further infuriated members of the committee.
For soft landing, the committee later resolved that the AIG and his team should go and tidy up their response to the query as it will never be swept under the carpet.
It consequently directed them to appear before it on Monday next week by 12noon and suspended consideration of the remaining five queries.
