On Tuesday, February 12, 2025, there was intense drama at the Senate Committee on Public Accounts as the Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), Suleiman Abdul, faced tough questioning about 3,907 missing assault rifles, including AK-47s.
AIG Abdul was representing the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, who had earlier apologized to the Senate Committee for not attending previous invitations. During the session, the representative of the Auditor General for the Federation read out an audit report from 2019, revealing that as of January 2020, 3,907 assault rifles could not be accounted for by the police.
Missing weapons revealed:
The Senate Committee was particularly concerned with the missing firearms, many of which were AK-47s. According to the AIG, the total number of lost firearms in the police’s possession by December 2018 was 178,459, with 88,078 of them being AK-47 rifles.
As of January 2020, after an audit, it was discovered that 3,907 assault rifles and pistols across various police stations had gone missing. The missing weapons included:
- 601 from 15 Police training institutions
- 42 from 23 Police formations
- 1,514 from 37 Police commands
- 29 from Zones 1 to 12
- 1,721 from Police Mobile Force (PMF) units 1 to 68
Senators demand answers:
The Committee, led by Deputy Chairman Senator Peter Nwaebonyi, was not pleased with the AIG’s response. They bombarded him with questions, asking why no answers had been provided about the missing rifles since the audit was conducted. Despite the pressure, AIG Suleiman Abdul and his team could not give satisfactory answers.
Overwhelmed by the many questions, AIG Abdul requested a closed-door session to discuss the matter privately. However, the majority of Committee members, including Senators Nwaebonyi, Adams Oshiomhole, and Joel Onawakpo-Thomas, rejected the idea. Senator Nwaebonyi said, “This is a public accounts committee. No closed-door session will be allowed. In countries like the U.S., public accounts sessions are broadcast live. All responses should be made in public, especially to the press.”
Senators push for transparency:
Senator Oshiomhole added, “The police arrest and parade criminals for stealing small things like rats and rabbits. They should be held to the same standard for the missing assault rifles. The AIG must tell Nigerians what has been done to recover these rifles, who was involved, and what progress has been made.”
In his response, AIG Abdul could only explain the loss of 15 out of the 3,907 missing assault rifles, claiming that 14 were lost by personnel killed in active service, and one was lost in 1998. This weak explanation further upset the Committee members.
Next steps:
The Committee then decided that AIG Abdul and his team would need to come back with better answers and would appear before the Committee again on Monday, February 19, 2025, at 12 noon. They also decided to suspend consideration of the remaining five queries until a more detailed response was provided. The Committee made it clear that the matter would not be swept under the rug.
