The Nigerian Senate is putting the police on the hot seat over a shocking discovery - 3,907 assault rifles have gone missing, and no one seems to know where they are. This revelation came to light during a Senate Committee on Public Accounts meeting, where the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, was grilled over the disappearance of these firearms.
According to the 2019 Audit Report by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation, a total of 178,459 firearms were unaccounted for as of December 2018, including 88,078 AK-47 rifles. A further audit conducted in January 2020 revealed that 3,907 assault rifles and pistols were still missing across various police formations.
The breakdown of the missing weapons is alarming - 601 were from 15 training institutions, 42 from 23 police formations, 1,514 from 37 state commands, 29 from zonal commands, and 1,721 from the Police Mobile Force units. The senators are demanding answers, and the police are struggling to provide a satisfactory explanation.
The assistant inspector-general of police in charge of public accounts and budget, Suleiman Abdul, was delegated to respond to the audit queries, but his responses only seemed to raise more questions. He could only account for 15 out of the 3,907 missing rifles, explaining that 14 were lost due to officers killed in action, while one had been missing since 1998.
The senators are not buying it, and they're determined to get to the bottom of this scandal. They've directed the police team to return with a more comprehensive explanation and have set a deadline for next Monday at noon. The police have been warned that the matter will not be swept under the rug, and they need to come up with some serious answers.
This incident has raised serious concerns about the accountability and transparency of the Nigerian police force. How could such a large number of assault rifles go missing without anyone noticing? What measures are in place to prevent such incidents in the future? These are the questions that the Senate and the public are demanding answers to.
The police need to take this incident seriously and conduct a thorough investigation to uncover the truth behind the missing rifles. They owe it to the public to provide a detailed explanation and to take concrete steps to prevent such incidents from happening again in the future.
As the investigation continues, one thing is clear - the Nigerian police force has a lot of work to do to regain the trust of the public. The missing assault rifles are just the tip of the iceberg, and it's time for the police to take a hard look at their internal systems and procedures to prevent such incidents from happening again.
The Senate's decision to take a tough stance on this issue is commendable, and it's a step in the right direction. The public deserves to know the truth, and the police need to be held accountable for their actions. As the story unfolds, it will be interesting to see how the police respond to the Senate's demands and what measures they take to address the concerns of the public.
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