Reps to probe ‘missing’ 178,459 firearms from police armoury

The house of representatives has resolved to investigate the alleged missing 178,459 firearms from the armoury of the Nigeria Police Force.

The resolution was passed after Toby Okechukwu, minority leader of the house, sponsored a motion of urgent public importance.

The motion followed a 2019 audit report of Adolphus Aghughu, auditor-general for the federation (AuGF).

According to the report, the overall number of firearms missing from the police armoury within the period under review was 178,459 pieces, based on a review of the arms movement records, monthly returns of arms and ammunition, and the ammunition register at the armoury department.

The report said the missing weapons include 88,078 AK-47 rifles, 3,907 assorted rifles and pistols across different police formations.

Leading the debate at the plenary session on Thursday, Okechukwu said the missing arms are linked to the nation’s escalating insecurity.

Lamenting the poor recording keeping of the police, Okechukwu said: “Records obtained from force armament at the force headquarters showed 21 police mobile force (PMF) squadron, Abuja, did not report a single case of missing firearm, whereas schedule of missing arms obtained from the same PMF showed a total of 46 missing arms between the year 2000 and February 2019.”

Idris Wase, the deputy speaker of the house, spoke in support of the motion, saying the probe will turn up a lot of information about the matter.

The motion was unanimously adopted when it was subjected to a voice vote by Femi Gbajabiamila, speaker of the house.

The house called on Usman Baba, inspector-general of police (IGP) to “apprehend those culpable for the depletion of the armoury”.