The immediate past Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase Monday in Abuja, described as lies the allegation by his successor, Ibrahim Idris that he took away 24 police vehicles.
According to him, Idris should cross-check his handover notes which contains every information needed by his successor on vehicles bought by the police.
The ex-IGP in a statement issued from London, United Kingdom, where he went for his son’s graduation also denied getting any letter from Idris since he has been out of the country.
According to him, all vehicles bought by the police under him were distributed to the state commands and other appropriate units of the Nigeria Police Force.
The statement reads: “I suspect there must be a disconnect somewhere because every information needed by my successor is provided in my hand-over notes. I’m also not aware that any letter was written to me because if there was any dropped in my house, someone would have alerted me.
“It’s unfortunate that this matter is being made a media issue because my successor has my telephone number and could have called me for any clarification or even sent me a text message rather than addressing the media on an issue well documented in my hand-over notes.”
Idris had claimed that Arase went away with 24 police vehicles while the seven Deputy Inspectors-General of Police, who retired alongside him, also carted away between seven and eight cars each.
Idris said that he had written Arase 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.
He had explained that 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.
Idris had said, “A week before I was announced, when you look through my office window, you could see so many cars. But the cars all disappeared when I came in. ‘’What I did was to assign a directive to the Special Investigative Unit, SFU, for them to investigate all vehicles’ purchases and donations to the police in the last three years. “When I took over, there were no vehicles. I discovered that the last IG went away with 24 vehicles, including two BMWs.
‘’The DIGs took seven, others eight. And they left me with an old vehicle. Even the one I follow the President with the last time I went for an engagement, the President asked what I was doing with that kind of vehicle.
‘’The headlight has changed colour, which means it was parked for long under the rain. But the new ones that were bought, including an Armoured BMW 7 series, he took them away. So, I wrote to him and reminded him of the need to return the vehicles.
‘’When a policeman retires as IG, DIG, AIG or CP he is entitled to some vehicles. And so, he should take his entitlement and return the extra. I believe four vehicles are enough for an average person. What does one need 24 vehicles for?”
