POLICE: Misau selling ‘outright falsehood; IGP gave ‘vehicles’ not ‘Jeeps’ to Aisha Buhari’s police team

Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has described as false and baseless the allegation by Senator Isah Misau that the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, fraudulently bought two jeeps for the wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, Aisha.

NPF made its response in a statement released by its spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood. It claimed that what the IGP approved for Aisha was two vehicles, a Toyota Sienna bus and a Toyota Hiace bus.

According to the police spokesperson, both vehicles were approved for the First Lady’s convoy after she requested for them through her Aide-De-Camp (ADC), SP Sani M Baba –Inn.

The statement reads, “The attention of the Nigeria Police Force has been drawn to publications … captioned ‘Misau Accuses IGP Of Buying 2 Jeeps For Buhari’s Wife’ and ‘IGP Idris Manipulated His Retirement Age, Says Misau’ credited to Senator Isa Hamma Misau …

“The two reports were studied and found out to be an outright falsehood, misleading, unfounded, a deliberate attempt to misinform the public and drag the name of the Wife of the President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs Aishat Buhari and that of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris NPM, mni into a controversy.

“It is pertinent to state that at no time did the Wife of the President and Commander in Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mrs Aisha Buhari requested directly or indirectly for vehicles for her use from the Inspector General of Police and no vehicle whether Jeep or SUV has ever been given for her personal use.

“To set the record straight and disabuse the minds of the public most especially those who must have read the story, that the Inspector General of Police is empowered by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended and the Police Act and Regulations, precisely Section 215 (1) (a&b) and (2)

“The Nigeria Police Force shall be under the command of the Inspector General Police and the Deployment and Control of the entire Operations of the Force including allocation of Police vehicles for operational use throughout the country shall be under the purview of the IGP.

“It is within the powers of the Inspector General of Police as stated above that when on the 17th January, 2017, SP Sani M Baba–Inna, the ADC ‘Wife of the President’ Federal Republic of Nigeria requested for Two (2) vehicles for Police Personnel in the convoy of Wife of the President for convoy movement and security purposes.

“Two (2) Police Vehicles (i) A Toyota Sienna Bus with Reg. No. NPF 2406D (ii) A Toyota Hiace Bus with Reg. No. NPF 3363D were approved by the Inspector General of Police to the ADC ‘Wife of the President’ SP Sani M Baba–Inna for the purposes requested and not to the person of the Wife of the President or for her personal use as alleged by Misau.

“The Nigeria Police Force categorically wishes to state that all the allegations made by Misau against the Inspector General of Police and the Wife of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria of buying two (2) Jeeps for the wife of the president as reported in some media are baseless, untrue and done in bad faith to misinform and mislead the public. Members of the public are hereby strongly enjoined to discountenance and disregard the report in its entirety,” the statement stated in part.

On the allegation of IGP falsification of retirement age Moshood said, “Misau’s allegations were ill-motive, for avoidance of doubt, the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Force Secretary Office wrote the chairman, Police Service Commission on the 18th of January, 2017 drawing the attention of the commission to the observation on the current staff List of Senior Police Officers whereby the date of birth of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, NPM, mni was incorrectly stated as 3/01/1959 instead of the actual date 15/01/1959.

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“All documents and records of the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim K. Idris, NPM, mni has 15/01/1959 as his date of birth except the staff list Senior Police Officers and this is the reason why the approval of the honourable chairman, Police Service Commission for correction of the error was sought in this regard,” Moshood said.

Misau had told Senate Ad-hoc Committee probing series of allegations he leveled against IGP Idris, “I still have some contract papers that the IG himself submitted to the court, where the First Lady through her aide-de-camp requested a Toyota Hiace and a Sienna jeep. The same day that the ADC wrote, the IG minuted that she should be given two jeeps. And it is not part of the appropriation. If you look at the appropriation, there is nowhere they said the First Lady should be given two jeeps.”

He had also accused Idris of falsifying his age.

 

 

 

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