Read my handover notes, Arase tells IG

Missing vehicles’ with Abuja automobile firm

Immediate past Inspector- General of Police (IG), Mr. Solomon Arase, has asked his successor, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, to avail himself with the handover notes he left before making spurious allegations about missing vehicles. 

Arase stated that the handover notes contain information on vehicles bought by the police.
This is as some of the 24 vehicles, which Idris said his predecessor took away while leaving office, have been located at an auto repair shop in Abuja. The acting IG had, on Sunday, alleged that Arase went away with 24 cars, while his management team also left with cars that were supposed to have been left behind.
He said: “A letter to that effect has been sent to Arase, who left with 24 cars. The Deputy Inspectors- General of Police (DIGs) also left with cars they weren’t supposed to go with. A week before I was announced, you could see so many cars once you look out of my window. But the cars have all disappeared.
What I did was to direct the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) to investigate all vehicles purchased and donated to the police in the last three years as well as their locations. “When I took over, there were no vehicles. I discovered that the last IG went away with 24 vehicles, including two BMWs.
As for the DIGs, some took seven, others eight. And they left me with an old vehicle.” But Arase, in a statement issued from London yesterday, where he went for his son’s graduation, denied receiving any letter from Idris. According to him, all vehicles bought by the police under him were distributed to the state commands and other appropriate units of the Nigeria Police Force.
His words: “I suspect there must be a disconnection somewhere because information needed by my successor is provided in my hand-over notes. I am also not aware that any letter was written to me. “If there was any letter dropped at my house, someone would have alerted me.
It is unfortunate that this matter is being made a media issue because my successor has my telephone number and could have called me for any clarification or even sent me a text, rather than addressing the media on an issue well documented in my hand-over notes.”
New Telegraph learnt that the cars were allegedly sent to an auto repair shop located at Jabi District, Abuja. It was also alleged that one of the cars, a BMW, has been completed and repainted. A source said: “The spare staff car had been having engine problem in the last five years before the last administration sent it for repairs.”
A source at the auto shop alleged that the car was delivered to the police headquarters at the weekend, after completion of repairs. He added that officials of the company would soon visit Idris to demand payment for the work.
According to the auto shop source, another official car; armoured plated staff car, would take time in fixing because of its high technology. He said that some parts needed to be imported. “Nobody approached our company to ask about the whereabouts of the cars. It was the police that brought them,” said the source.
It was alleged that Works Department and Transport Department of the police, which could have provided answers to the alleged ‘missing vehicles’, were not contacted. Instead, the present IG’s secretariat, filled with newly posted officers, wrote Arase, demanding the whereabouts of the cars. It was also said that all the vehicles have records and their locations known.https://newtelegraphonline.com/read-handover-notes-arase-tells-ig/