...No, I did Not Steal 24 Cars. It is propaganda
The acting Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has accused his
predecessor, Solomon Arase, stealing 24 police vehicles while the seven
Deputy Inspectors-General of Police, who retired alongside him, also
carted away between seven and eight cars each.
But Arase fired back accusing his successor of “malicious propaganda.”
Idris said he had written to the former IG to return the cars, which
included two official bullet-proof BMW 7 series cars, adding that the
retired police chief and his DIGs had yet to return the vehicles.
The Acting IG in an interaction with journalists weekend in Abuja, said a
special investigation team was already looking at the records of police
vehicle purchases in the last three years as well as how they were
distributed.
Responding to the allegation, Arase the Acting IG instead of verifying
before rushing to the Prss, is waging an unnecessary Media propaganda.
“What am I going to do with 24 cars? Do I want to open a car shop? This is
a malicious accusation. There are ways of verifying issues rather than
engaging in media propaganda,” Arase said.
But Idris, explaining the steps he had taken, said, “If you look through
the windows of my former office and from the report from my (Force)
transport officer, you would see cars but a week to the day I would
resume, all these cars disappeared.
“So, what I am telling you is that I have signed a directive to my SIP (I
have a special investigation panel, I set it up). It is going to
investigate all the vehicle purchases, contributions to the police and the
distribution of those vehicles in the last three years; we are going to
look into that.
“When I took over, there was no vehicle, even the vehicle I would use. I
discovered the last IG went away with 24 vehicles; the DIGs, some of them
eight, some of them seven. The IG’s vehicles included two BMW 7 series,
one armoured; and he left me with an old car.
“The last time I followed the President with it, he was asking me, ‘what
are you doing with this old car’ because if you see the headlight, the
thing has changed colour, which means they parked it and rains and
everything had fallen on it, but the new ones that were bought, he (Arase)
went with all of them; they are part of the 24.
“I wrote back to him and said, we have a policy that says when a policeman
retires, if you are an IG, AIG, a CP, you are entitled to some vehicles;
please, the extra, return it. Four vehicles are enough for an average
human being, but what will you even do with four vehicles; but he took 24
vehicles, including two BMW cars.
“I wrote to him (Arase), I wrote to the DIGs.”
Idris disclosed that the Police Management Team would probe the last
promotion in the Force following complaints by many police personnel that
their juniors were promoted over them.
He explained that the probe was to address the discrepancies and
complaints by aggrieved police personnel, who were allegedly short-changed
during the exercise.
Idris stated that the probe panel would be set up to verify if the
promotion was in line with the police service commission policy and
regulations.
The IG explained that his focus was to run a democratic police
organisation, which would be responsive and accountable.
He added that he had directed some audit firms to audit all police
investments to make them more transparent and ensure that the rank and
file, who were also shareholders, had more say in the police companies.
On strategies to curb the increasing wave of kidnapping and other crimes,
Idris said he would strengthen, retrain and equip the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad to be more responsive and responsible.
He said he recently removed some Area Commanders in Rivers and Kogi states
when he learnt that they had been compromised.