A serving police officer, DCP Abduyari Lafia, who had earlier earned commendations for bursting fraud cases amounting to more than N360 million, has written a petition to President Muhammadu Buhari, against over the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, calling for investigations into how the police chief managed series of corruption cases referred to the police in recent months.
Lafia had served as Chief of Criminal Intelligence of the Nigerian Police until he was redeployed to Police College, Kano.
The petition was also copied to the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Minister of Interior, National Security Adviser, chairman, Police Service Commission and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other offences Commission (ICPC).
Sources in the Senate and the House confirmed at the weekend that the petition, received at the Presidential Villa on November 3, 2017, had also been received at the legislative chambers.
The petitioner claimed in the document that he was being persecuted by the IGP and was left with no other option but to convey his travails to Buhari and the National Assembly.
He alleged: The reason for my current travail is that I refused to be a conduit pipe in conveying monies as proceeds of bribe, popularly known as ‘returns’ to IGP Ibrahim Idris on high-profile fraud and corruption cases running into billions of naira and millions of Dollars, which I have, at one time or the other, investigated or provided intelligence for investigators on.”
The officer further alleged that the IGP had covered up series of fraud cases referred to the police, which he said he had investigated or helped the investigators with intelligence.
He alleged that the IGP transferred a fraud case of N2.4 billion involving some Akwa-Ibom Officials out of the Intelligence unit to the IGP Monitoring Team after the Intelligence Bureau had established the source of the funds and identifies the perpetrators of the crime.
He said the case has become moribund since the transfer.
He also alleged the cover up of N32 billion, 400,000 (thirty two billion, four hundred thousand Naira) by the Police, a case he said was reported by a whistle blower.
He stated that in the course of investigating the above cases, he had rejected a bribe of N400 million later jerked up to N7million.
He said that the case had been successfully investigated by the Force Intelligence unit, with accounts frozen in one of the first generation banks In the petition, he also raised the issue of $1million fraud case he had earlier investigated, where a citizen who was defrauded of the sum, Albert Austin Ugochokwu addressed a press conference in Abuja, where he alleged that the IGP summarily withdrew his case which he said was being diligently handled by Abdukyari at FIB and transferred the same to the IGP Monitoring Unit.
The petitioner prayed the President to protect his life and that of his family, while also asking the President to institute a probe to into the management of Akwa-Ibom’s N2.4 billion.
He said that some officials allegedly collected the sum of N400 million to put the case in the cooler.
Police Public Relations Officer, Moshood Jimoh, who addressed the media on September 19, when this issue started brewing had claimed that Abdukyari was transferred from the FIP because of an ongoing investigation into a $20,000 exhibit which the DCP could not account for.
The Force Public Relations Officer last month dismissed the claims by the DCP.
Force Public Relations Officer, Jimoh Moshood, had said in Abuja that DCP “is currently being investigated over the exhibit money under his custody and which he must account for in the interest of justice and fair play to the owner of the money and the image of the Nigeria Police Force.”
