The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was on Tuesday quizzed by the Senate over 3,907 missing assault rifles, as contained in the 2019 Audit Report by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF).

This was as the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, tendered apologies to the Senate Committee on Public Accounts for not honoring previous invitations sent to him for explanations on queries issued to the police regarding alleged financial infractions in the 2019 Audit Report.
Egbetokun took the oath and nominated Assistant Inspector General of Police in Charge of Public Accounts and Budget, AIG Suleiman Abdul, to answer the eight queries issued against the police by the Office of the Auditor General.

While the committee, chaired by its Deputy Chairman, Senator Peter Nwaebonyi (APC, Ebonyi North), vacated query one, which bordered on N1.136 billion contract splitting, and stood down query two, which bordered on the alleged non-execution of a N925 million contract, it sustained query three, which bordered on the allegedly missing 3,907 assault rifles, many of which were AK-47s.

Trouble arose for the police when the representative of the Auditor General, in the query read to the hearing of committee members and AIG Suleiman Abdul, stated that as of January 2020, as contained in the 2019 Audit Report, a total of 3,907 assault rifles were unaccounted for by the police.
He said, “The total number of lost firearms as of December 2018 stood at 178,459, out of which 88,078 were AK-47 rifles.

“However, as of January 2020, based on a thorough audit carried out, 3,907 assault rifles and pistols across different police formations could not be accounted for.”

He broke down the missing firearms as follows: 601 from 15 training institutions, 42 from 23 police formations, 1,514 from 37 police commands, 29 from Zone 1 to 12, and 1,721 from Police Mobile Force (PMF) 1 to 68.

Piqued by the report, members of the committee bombarded the police team with questions on why such queries had not been responded to since they were issued.

In their response, neither AIG Suleiman Abdul nor any of his lieutenants could give the committee convincing reasons for the missing 3,907 assault rifles.

Apparently overwhelmed by the barrage of questions fired at him, AIG Abdul sought a closed-door session, which was, however, rejected by the majority of the committee members, from the Deputy Chairman who presided over the session to Senator Adams Oshiomhole and Senator Joel Onawakpo-Thomas.

Specifically, in rejecting AIG Abdul’s request, Senator Nwaebonyi said no closed-door session would be allowed under him.

“This is a public accounts committee that has no room for a closed-door session. In the United States of America, proceedings of public accounts committees are televised live. So whatever response the AIG wants to make on the missing assault rifles should be done in the full glare of all, particularly the journalists,” he said.

Also rejecting the AIG’s request for a closed-door session, Senator Oshiomhole remarked, “The police are known for arresting and parading thieves of rats and rabbits, which is expected of them regarding the missing assault rifles.

“The AIG should let Nigerians know the steps that have been taken by the police on the missing assault rifles over the years, who was involved, and the level of recovery made.”

In his feeble response, the AIG was only able to account for 15 out of the 3,907 missing assault rifles, 14 of which, according to him, were lost through 14 personnel killed in active service, and one in 1998, which further infuriated members of the committee.

For a soft landing, the committee later resolved that the AIG and his team should go and tidy up their response to the query, as it would never be swept under the carpet.

It consequently directed them to appear before it on Monday next week by 12 noon and suspended consideration of the remaining five queries.