Following the allegations of the disappearance of 3,907 assault rifles, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, has urged the Senate to conduct its investigation behind closed doors for security reasons.
In a letter transmitted to the Senate, Egbetokun dismissed the 2019 Audited Report by the Auditor-General for the Federation, which claimed that thousands of rifles were missing or unaccounted for in the police armoury as of January 2020, claiming the report is inaccurate.
A tough investigative hearing was even conducted at the Senate where top police officials, including the IGP himself, appeared before the Senate Committee on Accounts and struggled to provide answers to the Auditor-General’s report on missing firearms.
The letter was then submitted 48 hours later to the Senate pleading for the conducting of the investigations in a sensitive manner.
The letter reads, “We appreciate the Senate committee’s probe into the alleged missing firearms and urge the committee to conduct future hearings on sensitive security issues in camera so that the wrong impression is not created in the minds of Nigerians and the international community.
“Conducting hearings on these sensitive security issues behind closed doors will help prevent misinformation, protect national security interests, and allow for more candid discussions and fact-finding.”
The IGP also requested that the lawmakers give them more time to conduct internal investigations into the matter.
Reacting to the audit report yesterday, the spokesman of the force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, told journalists in Abuja that every effort had been made to account for the arms that were taken, while many had been recovered back to the arms holding of the force at the moment.
