House of Reps to investigate missing 178,459 police weapons

House of Reps to investigate missing 178,459 police weapons.

The House of Representatives have decided to investigate the alleged missing 178,459 arms and ammunition of the Nigeria Police Force, as contained in the 2019 report of the Auditor General for the Federation.

The decision was taken after a motion on matters of urgent public importance by the deputy minority leader, Toby Okechukwu (PDP, Enugu), was adopted at the plenary on Thursday January 20.

In his presentation, Okechukwu noted that the audit of Arms Movement Register, Monthly Returns of Arms and Ammunition and Ammunition Register at the Armoury Section revealed that the total number of lost firearms as of December 2018 stood at 178,459 pieces.

The lawmaker said;

“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 of January 2020.

“The findings in the report that the police high command failed to keep a 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”.

The Inspector-General of Police was further directed by the house of representatives member to take urgent actions to apprehend those culpable for the depletion of the armoury of the Nigeria Police Force.

The house committee on police affairs was also directed to investigate and report back to the House within four weeks.