House Of Reps Accuses Police Of Sitting On Recovered Crime Money As It Can’t Account For $7.5 Million

By Ayodele Oni

The House of Representatives has observed that the Nigerian Police only pays ‘tithe’ from recovered loot to the coffers of government.

The committee of the green house has therefore ordered the Nigerian Police Force, to disclose the whereabouts of the sum of $7.5million, recovered as proceeds of crimes in 2017.

Also, the House, demanded an explanation of the N360 million recovered as bribery from 26 Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC) officials during the 2019 governorship election in Rivers State.

A representative of the force had earlier, before the house committee admitted to depositing a sum of $30 million of the collected $37.5 million with the Central Bank without being able to account for the balance.

The Nigeria Police had been called to testify before the ad hoc committee of the House investigating the assessment and status of all recovered loots, movable and immovable assets from 2002 to 2020.

The force could not also explain to the Rep. Adejoro Adeogun(APC-Ondo) panel, how a document submitted before the committee, which claimed that on the 10th March, 2017, separate amounts of N4.198 million, N26,714,224.195 and N3.85 billion were lodged by the Police, but did not reflect in any account at the CBN.

Earlier, the House Committee had lambasted the representative of the Inspector General of Police, DIG D. O. Ogbunike

The lawmakers accused the police of a lack of recovery account to pay in proceeds of loots, with the representative of the Accountant General corroborating same.

The lawmakers said the attitude of the Police, “gives the impression that police just pays tithes from recoveries.”

The committee described the Nigeria Police as “the most systemically corrupt and ineffective institution in Nigeria” despite huge amount of money released to it yearly by States and the Federal Government.