The acting Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, says his
predecessor, Solomon Arase, went away with 24 police
vehicles while the seven Deputy Inspectors-General of Police,
who retired alongside him, also carted away between seven and
eight cars each.


Idris stated that he had written Arase to return the cars, which
included two official bullet-proof BMW 7 series cars, adding
that the retired police chief and his DIGs had yet to return the
vehicles.

The IG, who said this during an interview with journalists on
Sunday in Abuja, explained that a special investigation team
was already looking at the records of police vehicle purchases
in the last three years as well as how they were distributed.


Arase, however, denied the allegations of his successor, saying
he didn’t go away with any police vehicle.
The former IG, who spoke to our correspondent on the
telephone on Sunday, denied taking away 24 police cars,
describing the allegations as a malicious propaganda.
Arase advised Idris to squarely face security issues confronting
the country rather than engaging in “media 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.”


But Idris, explaining the steps he had taken, 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.

“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.”
Idris disclosed that the Police Management Team would probe
the last promotion in the Force following complaints by many
police personnel that their juniors were promoted over them.
He explained that the probe was to address the discrepancies
and complaints by aggrieved police personnel, who were
allegedly short-changed during the exercise.
Idris stated that the probe panel would be set up to verify if the
promotion was in line with the police service commission policy
and regulations.


The IG explained that his focus was to run a democratic police
organisation, which would be responsive and accountable.
He added that he had directed some audit firms to audit all
police investments to make them more transparent and ensure
that the rank and file, who were also shareholders, had more
say in the police companies.
On strategies to curb the increasing wave of kidnapping and
other crimes, Idris said he would strengthen, retrain and equip
the Special Anti-Robbery Squad to be more responsive and
responsible.


He said he recently removed some Area Commanders in Rivers
and Kogi states when he learnt that they had been
compromised.


http://punchng.com/arase-left-24-police-vehicles-acting-ig/

It has being the case with both politicians and security topshots.Those vehicles were donations from corporate organisations and other well meaning individuals to boost security in their communities.But the ogas at the top will replace them with rickety vehicles and divert the brand new ones to their various homes.