Solomon Arase, former inspector-general of police (IGP), has revealed that Mohammed Abubakar and Suleiman Abba, his predecessors, took 22 vehicles of the force away at the end of their service.
According to PUNCH, Arase said this in response to the claim of Ibrahim Idris, the incumbent IGP, that he took 24 vehicles while retiring.
Back in July, Idris had said Arase illegally took away 24 vehicles, and that he had written to him to return them to avoid sanction.
Arase had denied doing so, and in turn accused his successor of vilifying him.
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But in a letter dated December 1, Arase advised Idris to avoid engaging in acts that could bring any past occupant of that office to public ridicule.
Arase pointed out that in his time, he ensured that Force Order 295 was put in place to protect ex-IGs from being demeaned.
He said it was in the spirit of this order that he desisted from ridiculing the last two IGs before him even though he knew that they each went away with 13 and nine police vehicles respectively when leaving office.
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Arase said rather than denigrate Abba, who he succeeded, he indeed initiated actions and bought a brand new bulletproof jeep for the sacked IG despite the fact that Abba’s administration left a debt of N28bn for him to contend with.
He urged Idris to put the integrity and honour of the Nigeria Police Force first in any action he might want to take so that the force would not be exposed to public ridicule.
“I expect that former occupants of the office of the Inspector-General of Police should not be demeaned. This explains why Force Order 295 was emplaced by the force management under my leadership as acknowledged in your letter in reference,” he wrote.
“In spite of the emplacement of this order and despite the fact that my two immediate predecessors left office with 13 and nine vehicles of different makes and models respectively, I never pressurised either of them to return any of such vehicles neither did I engage in any act that was capable of bringing them to ridicule as being done to me of late by a force I dedicated my life to serving up to the highest level.
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“Rather, it is on record that I went the extra mile to source for funds and initiated actions towards purchasing a brand new bulletproof jeep for my immediate predecessor, even after his retirement from service. This was done notwithstanding the fact that I inherited and had to manage a huge debt profile of about N28bn, which limited the financial base of the force at the time.”
Abubakar retired in 2014, while former President Goodluck Jonathan sacked Abba in April 2015.
5 comments
What is this guy saying?
So, he actually left Police Service with 24 vehicles?
And he is trying to rationalise it by referring to the number of vehicles taken by his predecessors?
Nigeria is a country of absurdity. Theft is seen as nothing but a procedure. I am sorry for this great country. What would any person be doing with 24 vehicles and was proud to say that those before were also thieves. This is not right men.
Not right bro. Not in the least bit right.
Nigerian public servants especially those in helm of leadership can’t change.They treat our collective resources as their personal belongings.They always think that it should be business as usual as in the case of the former IGP whom many of us thought that he identified with the rank and file in the Police Force. The truth is that he left looting the Treasury of the Police Force more than his predecessor.Solomon Arase should bury his head in the sand of Shame and should be compelled to return the vehicles he stole by the present IGP. Nigerians must stand and resists this.
What this means is that there is Moore honour among thieves! All of them must be prosecuted and jailed for stealing public property! Shame on you all former IG’s. Only in Nigeria can one institutionalize and make theft government procedure!