Muhammed Sa'adu Abubakar

The Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammed Sa'adu Abubakar has disclosed why he blew the whistle on the Kenny Martins led Police Equipment Fund, PEF, declaring that the people who ran the affairs of the organization are highly corrupt.

Kenny Martins and Ibrahim Dumuje are both Chairman and Vice-Chairman of PEF

The Sultan who spoke to Pointblanknews.com in Los Angeles recently disclosed that it was his tip off that led to the investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commissions, EFCC, into the affairs of the PEF led by Martins and Dumuje.

The Obasanjo administration in February 2006 set up the, The Presidential Committee on Police Equipment Fund, PCPEF, to raise funds to equip the police materially, mentally and morally. But, after collecting funds running into several billions of naira , the committee quietly transformed into a non-governmental organization called the police equipment fund.

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PCPEF was later changed to Police Equipment Fund, PEF by Martins when it started operations as a non-governmental organization.

All local governments made a joint donation of N7.78 billion to the fund. Other donors include state governments, banks , oil companies, corporate organizations and government parastatals.

Reacting to a question from Pointblanknews.com, the Sultan who was accused to have received two cars from the many cars acquired to help the Police said “I was not involved in the police equipment Fund fraud, the gentlemen who were asked to run the affairs ran it like an NGO and I invited the EFCC when I smelt corruption.”

According to the Sultan who is also the leader of the Nigerian Muslim community, “there is a lot of fraud in that organization and when I saw what was happening, I immediately wrote to the EFCC to investigate and that is exactly what they are doing right now and for someone to say I benefited is wrong.”

But the committee’s record, according to reports, shows that it spent more than five billion naira on purchase of vehicles which it shared out as gifts to government establishments, security agencies and individuals.

Listed among the beneficiaries are the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the State Security Service (SSS), the Nigerian Intelligence Agency (NIA), the Committees on Police Affairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives, the Yar’Adua Campaign Organization, the Nigeria Police, the Sultan of Sokoto and the former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr. Sunday Ehindero. Among the 325 vehicles procured for the police were 250 luxury BMW cars and four-wheel drives which Ehindero is reported to have rejected because they were not suitable for the statutory functions of the Nigeria Police. The record also shows that the committee spent a whopping N202.5 million on a pre-launch dinner. The dinner is reported to have been put at an initial cost of N2.6 million.

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