Senate orders Police to submit five-year financial records

Unbelievable! President Goodluck Jonathan and the Commandant, Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, Irimiya Yerima, during Jonathan’s visit to the college... on Friday.

The Senate’s Public Accounts Committee has directed the Nigerian Police authorities to submit to it the records of appropriation and implementation of the budgets on the Nigerian Police College in the last five years.

Chairman of the committee, Senator Ahmed Lawan, told our correspondent in a telephone interview on Thursday, that the committee would commence its investigation by first examining the contents of the documents on the budgetary allocations to the college before taking further steps.

He said, “We are asking the police authorities to submit the documents first. We are going back in five years, because we know that the rot in the police college did not start last year; it has been there for a very long time.

“We have refrained from inviting anybody because we don’t want them to tell us what they want us to hear. We will first look at the books and ascertain the facts. Then, we will invite anyone, where necessary.”

He also promised that the investigations would be thorough and be different from the usual probes by Senate’s standing committees.

Lawan said, “As the Senate’s Public Accounts Committee, we operate differently. It will not be the usual invitation of people and then hold a public hearing.

“We will be take a careful look at what has happened, and we suspect that other agencies of the Police are involved. We will move from this stage to the other so that we can get to the bottom of the problem.”

The rot in the police came to the fore after Channel Television showed pictures of the degraded state of the police college in Ikeja.

The executive had already set up a committee to investigate the situation at the college, with a view to proffering corrective measures to the problems of the institution.