My Predecessors Also Left With 22 Police Vehicles And I Didn't Ridicule Them – Solomon Arase

The immediate past Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, has advised his successor, Ibrahim Idris, to avoid engaging in acts that could bring any past occupant of that office to public ridicule.

Arase said this in his reply to the allegations by Idris that he (Arase) took away 24 police vehicles while leaving office in June as the IG. In a letter he wrote to Idris, Arase said:

“I expect that former occupants of the office of the IG of Police should not be demeaned. This explains why Force Order 295 was emplaced by the force management under my leadership.

In spite of the emplacement of this order and despite the fact that my two immediate predecessors, Mohammed Abubakar and Suleiman Abba, left office with 13 and 9 vehicles, I never pressurised either of them to return any of such vehicles neither did I engage in any act that was capable of bringing them to ridicule as being done to me of late by a force I dedicated my life to serving up to the highest level.

Rather, it is on record that I purchased a brand new bulletproof jeep for my immediate predecessor. This was done notwithstanding the fact that I inherited and had to manage a huge debt profile of about N28bn, which limited the financial base of the force at the time.”

Among the 13 vehicles, which Arase said Abubakar took away were a BMW (7 series) bulletproof car; and 2 Toyota Land Cruiser V8 bulletproof jeeps.

According to him, Abba also took away a Toyota Land Cruiser bulletproof jeep and a Toyota Land Cruiser Prado jeep along with 7 other vehicles.

Arase said he decided to delay in returning the vehicles, which Idris alleged he took away, as a form of protest against the “unfair, untidy and demeaning approach the matter was handled until now.” 

Punch