A battle is brewing between the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, and his successor, Ibrahim Idris, over the claim by Mr. Idris that his former boss went away with 24 police vehicles after he retired from service.
The Punch newspaper quoted Mr Idris as saying at a press conference, Sunday, that the 24 vehicles Mr Arase refused to return to the police included two bullet-proof BMW 7 series.
He also reportedly alleged that the deputy Inspector Generals who retired alongside Mr. Arase also left with between seven and eight cars each.
Mr. Idris told journalists in Abuja that a special investigation team was already probing the number of vehicles purchased by the police in the last three years and how they were distributed.
The acting Inspector General also said he had written to his predecessor and other recently retired senior police officers to return the vehicles in their possession.
“So, what I am telling you is that I have signed a directive to my SIP (I have a special investigation panel, I set it up). It is going to investigate all the vehicle purchases, contributions to the police and the distribution of those vehicles in the last three years; we are going to look into that.
“When I took over, there was no vehicle, even the vehicle I would use. I discovered the last IG went away with 24 vehicles; the DIGs, some of them eight, some of them seven. The IG’s vehicles included two BMW 7 series, one armoured; and he left me with an old car.
“The last time I followed the President with it, he was asking me, ‘what are you doing with this old car’ because if you see the headlight, the thing has changed colour, which means they parked it and rains and everything had fallen on it, but the new ones that were bought, he (Arase) went with all of them; they are part of the 24.
“I wrote back to him and said, we have a policy that says when a policeman retires, if you are an IG, AIG, a CP, you are entitled to some vehicles; please, the extra, return it. Four vehicles are enough for an average human being, but what will you even do with four vehicles; but he took 24 vehicles, including two BMW cars.
“I wrote to him (Arase), I wrote to the DIGs.”
He said he was baffled that cars that were parked at the force headquarters transport department disappeared just a week before he assumed duties as Inspector General.
“If you look through the windows of my former office and from the report from my (Force) transport officer, you would see cars but a week to the day I would resume, all these cars disappeared.”
However, Mr. Arase denied the allegation, describing it as a malicious propaganda.
He said Mr. Idris should focus on confronting the security challenges in the country instead of wasting time on “media propaganda.”
“What am I going to do with 24 cars? Do I want to open a car shop? This is a malicious accusation. There are ways of verifying issues rather than engaging in media propaganda,” The Punch quoted the former police boss as saying.
Meanwhile, Mr. Idris has vowed to investigate the complaints by some officers over unfair promotions and postings. He said he has set up a probe panel to investigate if the promotions were in line with the dictates of the police service commission.