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‘You took 24 police vehicles’ | ‘Do I want to open a car shop?’ -Between new IGP and predecessor

The acting Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, on Sunday, said that his predecessor, Solomon Arase, took away 24 police vehicles during his retirement while the recently retired seven Deputy Inspectors-General of Police also went away with seven cars each.

Speaking with journalist in Abuja, Idris said that he has written to his predecessor and the retired DIG to return the vehicle. He noted that some of the vehicles taken away by Arase included two official bullet-proof BMW 7 series cars.

Idris further said that he has set up a special investigation team to look into the police records to see how they were purchased and distributed in the last three years.

He 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.”

The IGP further said that the Police Management Team will look into the last promotion done by the force because of complaints by some officers that their juniors were promoted over them.

On his part, the former IGP, Solomon Arase denied the accusation that he took away 24 police vehicles, saying that it is a malicious propaganda.

Speaking in a telephone interview with The Punch, Arase said, “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.”

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