The last may not have been heard of the alleged multi-billion Naira contracts rocking the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) earlier put at N1.9 billion currently being investigated by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as the amount is now said to have increased to N4.9 billion as of last week.
Already, the Nigerian Tribune gathered that the principal actor, a commissioner of police, who is currently with the EFCC over the scam, was said to have named two former Inspectors General of Police, two former ministers of police affairs and others as his “partners in the crime.”
This came just as the Nigerian Tribune gathered that five operatives of the EFCC were being detained for allegedly compromising with the detained commissioner of police in the investigation.
According to sources, some top officials of the police service commission were said to have been quizzed, following their alleged roles in the scam while the detained commissioner of police was said to have appeared again before a panel set up by the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim Idris, on contracts given out by his predecessors.
The detained commissioner of police, was, last month, directed by the IGP to report himself at the EFCC based on instruction from the Presidency, following a petition from a private investigator to President Muhammudu Buhari and the Attorney General of the Federation/Minister of Justice, Mallam Abubakar Mallami, that he had turned the Works department of the Nigeria Police to private enterprises.
According to the petition, the private investigator, Alfred Kissinger Darosha, said he decided to write the president directly since all efforts to bring the commissioner of police to justice through all the anti graft agencies had failed.
The private investigator accused the commissioner of police of awarding contracts worth several billions of naira to only companies in which he had interest.
When contacted, the Head, Media and Publicity of the commission, Mr Wilson Uwujaren, said he had not been briefed on the fate of the detained commissioner of police, but confirmed that investigation was still in progress.
At the Force Headquarters, Abuja, the Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), Donald Awuna, could not be reached as calls put through to his number were not returned.
However, another senior police officer, who did not want his name print, confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune that the scam was giving the IGP sleepless nights, saying, “all is not well, but at the end of the day, the truth will come out. The man is singing to interrogators already, he is a commissioner of police and the case is under his junior, but at the end of the day, the truth will come out because the presidency is involved.’’