Police detectives have recovered no
fewer than 30 vehicles belonging to the Nigeria Police Force that were
appropriated by retired management officers who left the service in June 2016.
The vehicles were recovered from a
former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, and seven Deputy
Inspectors-General of Police who retired alongside him.
Our correspondent learnt on Sunday
that 19 of the vehicles were recovered by the Special Investigation Panel
(SIP), while 11 others were returned voluntarily by the retired officers.
The SIP was set up last July by the
current IGP, Ibrahim Idris, to probe the disappearance of police vehicles from
the parking lot at the Force headquarters in Abuja.
With the recovery of the vehicles,
the SIP, headed by retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Ali Amodu,
has concluded its investigation into the matter.
Some of the recovered vehicles include
assorted sedans comprising three BMW cars, including a 7-series model, three
Toyota Hilux pick-up vans, four Nissan pick-up vans, nine Sports Utility
Vehicles consisting of two Nissan Patrols and seven Toyota Prado Landcruisers.
Also recovered were three brand new
2014 Toyota Corolla cars with registration numbers NPF 2211 D and NPF 2212D and
a new Toyota Siena without a registration number.
A senior police officer familiar
with the investigation stated that the former management officers cooperated
with the SIP after a media report on the recovery of 19 vehicles from the
former IGP.
The source said, "In all, we
have recovered 30 vehicles from the former management officers. Following a
newspaper report about the 19 vehicles we recovered from the former IGP, the
retired DIGs who also went away with vehicles started cooperating with us and
they voluntarily returned 11 vehicles, bringing the total to about 30 or
so."
It was further gathered that the
police returned four of the recovered vehicles to Mr. Arase "as his
entitlement, as is the tradition in the police."
The former IGP had strenuously
denied taking away 24 vehicles, insisting that all the vehicles bought by the
police under him were distributed to the state commands and other appropriate
units of the Nigeria Police Force.
He accused the police of media propaganda
and challenged the Force to publish the registration numbers of the vehicles he
went away with.
However, yesterday, Mr. Arase
confessed to carting away official vehicles, claiming that he did it to protest
the demeaning ways his successor handled the issue in public.
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