Saturday June 9, 2007—

Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro

Barely a week since new Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Mbama Okiro assumed office and declared intention to join Nigeria’s war on corruption, the police uncovered monumental fraud at police force headquarters resulting in the arrest of a Commissioner of Police and his two aides with local and foreign currencies totaling about N200 million on Thursday June 7, 2007.

The Commissioner of Police in charge of Budget at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, Mr. John Obaniyi, who was arrested about mid morning, is being detained on the 7th floor of the Louis Edet Police Headquarters. He was said to have told his interrogators that the money was meant for the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero.

Obaniyi’s arrest on Thursday followed the arrest of two policemen attached to his office during an attempt to move a traveling bag containing about N200 million overnight from the Force Headquarters.

Former Police IG Sunday Ehindero

The arrest of the commissioner and his aides typified the rot, which allegedly characterized the tenure of Mr. Ehindero.

Reports indicate that initial investigations already revealed that the money was part of the funds meant for the provision of new uniforms and kits for policemen. Also, it was gathered that part of the money was meant for the payment of 250 officers who went on foreign mission to Haiti and Liberia. The officers were paid part of the estacode on May 25 and the balance was said to have been seized.

The new Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, who, only 48 hours ago, declared war on corruption within the Force, was said to have been stunned by the development.

As a result, he was said to have personally quizzed Obaniyi in his office, during which the embattled commissioner of police allegedly confessed that the money was meant for Ehindero.

After Obaniyi’s confession, Okiro was said to have ordered his detention at the Force CID office while he also directed Deputy Inspector General of Police, Sir K. Z. Dudari, to take over the case.

Some report indicate the other two suspects, who were identified as Obaniyi’s driver and orderly were said to have been handed over to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday evening. However, other reports quoted the police boss saying the matter would not be referred to the EFCC as the force was capable of investigating it.

Obaniyi, who joined the police in 1974, got a special promotion as CP in 2006, from Ehindero. The two officers hail from the same Akoko Local Government Area of Ondo State.

The police are also believed to have launched investigation into a N2.5 billion belonging to the police cooperative, which is said to have been lodged in some secret accounts.

All the arrested officers so far were former aides to immediate past Inspector-General of Police.

(Left photo) Nigeria’s former top cop Tafa Balogun was forced to retire after corruption allegations were made against him. He faced 70 counts charge alleging embezzlement, money laundering and fraud, among others.(Right photo) Nigeria’s former police chief Tafa Balogun in handcuffs during a court hearing in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city.

In 2005 President Obasanjo fired his then Inspector-General of Police Tafa Balogun after receiving reports detailing his numerous involvements in monumental fraud and corruption. Mr. Balogun was later arrested, tried, convicted and served prison time.

The arrest of Inspector-General Tafa Balogun marked a turning point in former President Obasanjo’s lopsided war on corruption, however, Mr. Sunday Ehindero who replaced Balogun, for reasons yet unknown allowed the momentum to slip away. Mr. Ehindero has been judged by fellow policemen, especially junior officers, to be more corrupt than Tafa Balogun.

After completing his prison term, Mr. Balogun has since been release.

With this high profile arrest in his office, the reputable action and tough top cop IGP Mike Mbama Okiro has announced to the nation and the world that Nigerian police is not rotten beyond repair; that it is capable of cleaning up its act.

Though there were conflicting reports in the media as to the exact amount of money that is causing this scandal. Some newspapers had put the figure at N200 Naira while others stated the correct figure is about N23 million. Some reports indicate that the money was meant for police allowances, uniforms and estacode; others said the money was allocations to the former IG’s office for what were described as PR and other miscellaneous expenditures. The very sad episode about this scandal is that those are the money the police need to be more effective instead were reportedly been siphoned by few individuals.

A police affairs specialist who spoke to us on condition of anonymity indicated that Nigeria police do not take it easy with robbers, where in police uniform or in mufti, especially when the robbery affects the welfare of police. “Mr. Ehindero will hear nwiii!” said the specialist.

When contacted, the Force spokesman, Commissioner of Police Haz Iwendi, confirmed the arrest and the recovery of the huge sums of money.

How We Recovered N21m From Policemen—Okiro
P.M. News, June 8, 2007

Acting Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mike Okiro, this morning threw light on how his men arrested some cops with over N21 million. According to the police boss who was not in a hurry to confirm if the amount actually belonged to the former Inspector General of Police, Sunday Ehindero, as alleged, the effort to track down the cops loading the money into a car as the result of the recent anti-corruption crusade he launched in the force.

Asked to throw light on how the effort paid off, Okiro who was emphatic on his good beginning, disclosed that a police officer informed him two days ago that a large sum of money was about to be moved out of the force headquarters to an unknown destination.

“I asked the officer: ‘Are you sure of what you are saying? He replied that he was sure and that he came to me in furtherance of my determination to wipe out corruption from the force.

“So, I planted my men, and under 24 hours, our efforts paid off.”

Okiro disclosed that as at yesterday, three police officers had been arrested but refrained from mentioning the principal suspect, saying investigation was still going on.

The police boss said the matter would not be referred to the EFCC as the force was capable of investigating it.

The money was allegedly recovered from the office of the Police Commissioner for Budget, Mr. John Obaniyi. Okiro also revealed that the police would revisit cases like the murder of Chief Bola Ige, Engineer Funsho Williams and the bombing of the INEC office in Abuja.

Why Ex-IG Ehindero Moved His Loot So Late
"Oga na thief man"– says junior policemen interviewed
By Tony Orilade/Abuja, P.M. News
June 8, 2007

As our headline, which is the title of a novel suggests, the lid was blown off the corrupt three-year administration of the former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindero, yesterday when a police commissioner and others were arrested with millions of naira in a luggage. Apart from confirming the scandal, the new police hierarchy led by Mr. Mike Okiro, also ordered the detention of the police officer and other aides of the former IGP arrested in connection with the loot.

P.M. News investigations revealed that the drama started when a police aide of Ehindero was arrested when he went into the IGP’s office and brought out a travel bag said to belong to Ehindero.

The new IGP, Mike Okiro, who was in the office at the time, was said to have ordered that the bag be searched.

On searching the bag, millions of naira in both local and foreign currencies, worth N27 million, were allegedly found in it.

On interrogation, the aide confessed to Okiro that it was Ehindero who asked him to bring the bag and that the money belonged to the former police boss.

The arrested aide also reportedly identified other police officers keeping various sums of police money in their offices.

This revelation led to the arrest of the Commissioner of Police in charge of Budget, Mr. Sunday Obaniyi, who was reportedly found stuffing millions of naira in local and foreign notes worth N200 million into a box in his office.

Obaniyi allegedly confessed during interrogation that the money belonged to Ehindero and he was immediately taken to Okiro who ordered his detention.

Those arrested are currently being detained on the 7th floor of the Louis Edet Police Headquarters in Abuja.

Police sources told P.M. News that the new police boss, Okiro, was particularly irked that Ehindero left behind N4 million in the police account only for him to send some officer to cart away millions of naira.

Investigations revealed further that Ehindero waited this late to remove his loot from his office because he never thought he could be removed so hastily by the Yar’Adua administration.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo was said to have assured him that Yar’Adua had granted him a two-month tenure extension but was shocked when Yar’Adua asked him to hand over to the next senior police officer.

Sources at the police headquarters in Abuja described Ehindero as another police officer worse than the disgraced former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun.

The song on the lips of many policemen interviewed this morning on the startling revelations was ‘Oga na thief man’.

P.M. News reports that Ehindero’s two-year tenure as police boss was characterised by massive corruption and unresolved assassinations.

It was during his tenure that Engineer Funsho Williams, a PDP chieftain in Lagos, was killed by unknown assassins.

Up till now, the police are yet to bring the killers to book.

Ehindero also made questionable promotions in the force while he held sway.

Police Parade Officers In N21m Drama
From John-Abba Ogbodo (Abuja) and Alex Olise
The Guardian newspaper, Saturday, June 09, 2007

Acting Inspector-General of Police, Mike Okiro, yesterday confirmed the arrest of two policemen in the Abuja Force Headquarters as they were attempting to take out the sum of N21.6million.

Okiro said he had received intelligence reports that large sums of money were being taken out of the Force Headquarters and had planted detectives around the premises who intercepted the culprits on Thursday.

At a press briefing yesterday, Okiro said the two policemen caught with the money allegedly confessed that it was the Commissioner of Police in charge of Budget, John Obaniyi who sent them to bring the money to his house.

The two policemen and Obaniyi have been detained, he said, adding however that there was no need to write the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as the police could handle the case.

There was agitation in police circles yesterday that the discovery may expose top officers who might have embezzled huge sums and were now using their boys to escape with their loot.

Force Public Relations Officers, Mr. Haz. Iwendi who confirmed the parade of the suspects to The Guardian, assured that the police high command would do justice in the investigation.

It was learnt that the State Security Services (SSS) and top detectives within the force had been put on surveillance in the nation's airports and borders.

Meanwhile, the police said yesterday that the case of the murder of former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige was not closed.

Acting Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro said at a press conference in Abuja that the Bola Ige case as well as the attempt at bombing the offices of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would be revisited. Some men who allegedly burnt down a police station in Niger State and others who killed some policemen in Ebonyi State were also paraded at the conference.

Said Okiro: "I am going to have a meeting with the Deputy DIGs and together we are going to revisit the case and if it is necessary for us to do anything outside what has been done, we shall do it. If there is some new information that we need or we have got that will help us revisit the case, we shall use it. If we think the case is good and finished, we shall leave it as it is."

Asked to confirm if the allowances due to policemen sent on UN peace mission had been paid according to the former IG Sunday Ehindero, Okiro said: "If you interviewed the former IG and he said they have been paid and you interviewed those involved and they said they have not been paid, it is left for you to draw your conclusions."

Okiro stressed that he was yet to be allocated an official residence as the former IG, Ehindero, was still occupying the official IG accommodation.

"I am still occupying the house I occupied as a DIG and the former IG is still living where he was living as IG. These are facts, which everybody knows. When he tells me that he has bought the house, then we will know the next action to take. I am not yet a week old as IG and so I am not ready to pack out of the DIG quarters."

Meanwhile, Okiro has warned that henceforth, any community that attacks or burns down a police station will not have rest until the perpetrators have been arrested and the police station rebuilt.

"That community will also be made to pay adequate compensation to police officers who lose their property. Likewise, we shall not condone any unethical behavior and or unprofessional conduct on the part of policemen. Such policemen will be given adequate punishment according to law," he said.

The police yesterday paraded 35 persons found culpable in the fracas in Zungeru and Wushishi, Niger State, where two policemen were attacked resulting in the death of one of them.

Five persons from Ebonyi State were also paraded for attacking and destroying houses belonging to elected officials by aggrieved indigenes over non-performance. Two policemen were also killed in the process.