The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) says 3,907 weapons did not go missing from its armoury during the tenure of Kayode Egbetokun, the inspector-general of police (IGP).
On Tuesday, the senate committee on public accounts queried
the NPF over the missing firearms.
The disappearance of the ammunitions was contained in a 2019
report issued by the office of the auditor-general of the federation.
Egbetokun nominated Suleiman Abdul, an assistant
inspector-general (AIG), to respond to the senators’ queries.
Lawmakers rejected the police representative’s
“unsatisfactory explanations” on the subject and other audit issues.
‘OUR ARMS CARTED
AWAY’
In a statement on Thursday, Muyiwa Adejobi, force
spokesperson, said some police ammunitions went missing during civil unrest.
Adejobi said when auditors inspect police armouries, they
may not find all the weapons because some are issued to personnel for
operational use.
“The force wishes to clarify that this report appears to
stem from an assessment of the report by the Office of the auditor-general of
the federation, dating back to 2019, likely reflecting records compiled prior
to the current inspector-general of police’s tenure,” the statement reads.
“It is important to acknowledge the challenges faced by the
police during periods of civil unrest, during which several police officers
were killed and their arms carted away, and some attacks and looting of police
facilities and armories, resulting in the loss of arms.
“However, every effort has been made to account for the arms
that were taken, while many have been recovered back to the arms holding of the
force at the moment.
“We also note that when auditors conduct visits to our
armories, they may not find all arms present at the time due to the issuance of
weapons to personnel for operational purposes, many spanning to months
depending on the nature of such operations.
“Consequently, this may lead to misconceptions regarding the
accuracy of audit reports.”
Adejobi added that “no such outrageous number of firearms is
missing in the armouries” of the force under the leadership of Egbetokun.
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