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Rumbles in police as IGP Idris accuses Arase of carting away 24 cars

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Few weeks after retiring as the Inspector General of the Police, IGP, Solomon Arase has been enmeshed in controversy, as the new IGP, Ibrahim Idris, has accused him of taking away 24 vehicles, including two bullet proof BMW cars.

According to IGP Idris, the Deputy Inspector Generals of Police, DIGs, who retired with Arase, also took away between seven to eight vehicles each.

Idris, who disclosed this at an interview with journalists in Abuja on Sunday, said he has ordered a probe into the records of police vehicles in the last three years and how they were distributed.

Idris said: “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.

“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.

Read also: After purge, police get 18 new AIGs, 37 CPs

“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 doing with four vehicles; but he took 24 vehicles, including two BMW cars.

“I wrote to him (Arase), I wrote to the DIGs.”

The former IGP, Arase, however denied the allegations, saying they were mere malicious propaganda against him.

He also insisted that he did not go away with any police vehicle.

Arase also counseled his successor to face the task of combating the many security issues facing the country instead of engaging in propaganda.

He said: “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.”

By Timothy Enietan-Matthews

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