88,000 guns, other weapons, millions in arms contracts unaccounted for by police

No fewer than 88,000 rifles and other firearms and ammunition have been declared missing or unaccounted for in Nigerian police arsenals across the nation.

And the office of the auditor-general of the federation (AGF) has asked the police force to explain why contracts were awarded to companies owned by same persons.

According to a report by the office of the AuGF, as of January 2020, 3907 rifles and pistols are missing, 601 firearms are missing from 15 training institutions; 42 in 23 formations; 1514 missing in 37 police commands; 29 missing in zone 1-12 were not also reported as required by law, with 1,721 firearms are missing in Police Mobile Force (PMF) 1-68.

The report also indicated 21 Police Mobile Force (PMF) Squadron, Abuja, did not report a single case of missing firearm, whereas the schedule of missing arms obtained from the same PMF showed a total number 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 audit report said.

The report also spotted irregularities in procurement. Ten contracts totalling N1.136billion were awarded to a single proprietor in the name of different companies.

In the companies’ profiles, the contact phone numbers and email addresses of the three companies were the same. And the companies did not disclose their relationship in accordance with the fundamental principles of procurement as required by extant regulation.

Again, the report discovered N924.985million was paid for 11 contracts involving construction of three units of Gunshot Spotter System, supply of 50 units of Ballistic Roller Trolley and 20 units of Ballistic Mobile Surveillance House in some selected Commands and Formations.

Final payments were made in March 2019 without evidence of execution. Documents such as end user certificate, store receipt voucher (SRV), store issue voucher (SIV), job completion certificate were not presented for audit examination.

All the items the police claimed to have been constructed/supplied at the Force Headquarters, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) command, explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) unit and (PMF unit as specified in the award letters revealed that the contracts had not been executed by the time of physical verification of the purported items in June 2020.