From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
The House of Representatives has resolved to probe the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) over alleged violations of extant financial laws and regulations, illegal sale of national assets, and diversion of public funds.
Consequently, the House mandated its Committee on Public Accounts to report back to it within six weeks for further legislative action.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Ibe Okwara and Mark Esset, calling for an urgent probe of allegations of “systematic abuse of office, corruption, and asset striping in the Nigeria Police Force.”
Okwara, while leading debate on the bill, said there were allegations that the police reportedly awarded a contract worth N6 billion after “splitting it into 66 separate contracts in a deliberate attempt to circumvent the Public Procurement Act, 2007.”
He said there were also allegations of “reported sale of critical national security assets, including Garki Police Barracks (Abuja), Falomo Police Barracks (Lagos), and Bompai Barracks (Kano), to private individuals “without the requisite “approvals from the infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Ministry of Police Affairs, or the Federal Executive Council (FEC), and in total disregard to the PPP guidelines.”
The lawmaker added that it was worrisome that “various contracts under the 2024 budget, running into tens of billions of naira, have allegedly been awarded by the Nigeria Police Force without compliance with statutory procurement processes, including the Federal Executive Council approval, Ministerial Tenders Board vetting, and Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) no-objection certification.
“Further worry is about credible allegations that several contracts amounting to over N50 billion were paid to unqualified and unverified companies for the supply of arms, boots, gunboats, and forensic intelligence equipment, without any execution or delivery, thereby putting national security at risk.”
Okwara, who stated that there were also “reports of the diversion of N2.9 billion meant for the Safe School Initiative, “expressed concern over allegations of abuse of office, lack of due process, and corruption in the NPF, are threats to the credibility of the police and the pursuit of its security objectives.”
He posited that “these allegations point to a systemic abuse of office, blatant disregard for procurement regulations, undermining of internal oversight departments, and potential sabotage of Nigeria’s internal security architecture.
“Convinced that if urgent steps are not taken, these acts of impunity and financial misconduct could erode public confidence in the police force and sabotage national security and development efforts.”