House of Representatives, Thursday, resolved to investigate the alleged disappearance of 178,459 arms and ammunition from the police armory.
The House also called on the Inspector General of Police, IGP, to take urgent action to apprehend those culpable of the depletion of the armoury of the Force.
The resolution followed the consideration of a motion titled “Need to Investigate the Alleged Missing Firearms and Ammunition of the Nigerian Police”, moved under matters of urgent public importance by the deputy minority leader Hon. Toby Okechukwu at the plenary.
Moving the motion, Okechukwu noted that the 2019 report of the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation on alleged disappearance of about 178,459 different arms and ammunition of the Nigeria Police Force in 2019 recently reported in our national daily newspapers.
He said “The audit of Arms Movement Register, Monthly Returns of Arms and Ammunition and Ammunition Register at the Armoury Section reveals that a total number of lost firearms as at December 2018 stood at 178,459 pieces.
“Out of this number, 88,078 were AK-47 rifles, 3,907 assorted rifles and pistols across different police formations, which could not be accounted for as at January 2020.
“In the report that the police high command failed to keep record of unserviceable and expired firearms and ammunition; owing to non-compliance to the internal control system of the Nigeria Police Force.
“Records of the total number of unserviceable firearms were not produced for examinations and there were no returns from Adamawa State Command, Police Mobile Force (PMF) 46, 56, 64 and 68 for the period under review.
“Dully completed Treasury Form 146 (loss of stores) were not presented. Records obtained from force armament at Force Headquarters showed 21 Police Mobile Force (PMF) Squadron, Abuja did not report a single case of missing firearm, whereas schedule of missing arms obtained from the same PMF showed a total of 46 missing arms between year 2000 and February 2019.
“The value of the lost firearms could not be ascertained because no document relating to their cost of acquisition was presented for examination.
“The worsening state of security, kidnapping and banditry in the country and concerned that the missing arms could have found their ways into the wrong hands. Also Mindful that Nigeria did not undertake any war in recent times”.