The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has refutted claims that 3,907 riffles are missing from its armouries, describing the report as misleading and inaccurate.
The Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, disclosed that the allegations came from a 2019 audit report by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, which does not reflect the current status of the police armouries.
Adejobi clarified that the report states that 3,907 arms were “unaccounted for,” not “missing,” as speculated in the news. He explained that weapons assigned to officers for operations may not always be present during audits, leading to misconceptions about the accuracy of audit reports.
The police also highlighted that some arms were lost due to attacks on police formations during civil unrest, but efforts have been made to recover them, and many have already been accounted for.
This clarification follows a February 11 report that detailed how the Senate Public Accounts Committee grilled the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, over discrepancies in police armoury records. The committee had expressed concern that 178,459 firearms, including 88,078 AK-47 rifles, were allegedly missing from police formations across the country.
However, Adejobi maintained that Egbetokun was not present during the Senate’s discussion on the missing firearms, contrary to reports suggesting otherwise. The IG had only appeared briefly before the committee on Tuesday to address concerns about previous invitations.
The Senate Committee has postponed further hearings on the audit to Monday, February 17, 2025, allowing the police time to reconcile discrepancies in the records.
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