Police Deny Recovering 19 SUVs from Arase

Dele Ogbodo in Abuja

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) on Monday denied it recovered 19 Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) from the immediate past Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase.

A competent source who spoke with THISDAY under anonymity at the Louis Edet House, the Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, said the authors of the report which appeared in both online and print media are only making attempts to pitch the current Inspector General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris against Arase.

While advising journalists to always cross-check with the Police for clarification on sensitive issues, he said: “You can hear me talking to one of the reporters who wrote the unsubstantiated report. What is contained in that report are just figments of their imagination. This guy never called to confirm the report.

“You can read the report and see that it was never credited to any source. Please, journalists should cross-check for facts before going to press.”

While dismissing the report that the Police recovered the 19 SUVs from the former IGP, he said: “You can go round the police premises and ask questions to find out if there movement of recovered cars into the premises in the last few days.”

The source, who is a senior ranking officer, said the public should discountenance the report as it was mischievously written to embarrass the Force, adding that this kind of report cannot cause bad blood within the Force.

Recalled that few weeks on assumption of duty, Idris granted an interview to few media houses alleging that the outgoing IG (Arase) and few retired Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIGs), had carted some SUVs while leaving office.

The controversy generated so much heat while Arase was in the United Kingdom (UK), denying the allegation of carting away the SUVs.

Arase while clearing the insinuation, added that information on the SUVs were contained in his hand-over notes to his successor, who was in acting capacity then.

Investigation however revealed that some of the cars were later traced to the NPF mechanic workshop