IG demands audit of police armouries

Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, has demanded an audit of all armouries in police formations across the country.

He said this had become necessary to uncover some of the weapons that might have expired or were defective in the armouries.


Arase said this in Uyo on Wednesday during his visit to the Akwa Ibom State Police Command.

According to him, a policeman who faces criminals with a defective rifle has put himself in danger.

The IG added, “If I am an accountant and I am careless, I will lose money, but if you are a police officer, if you are careless with your men, you (will) lose lives and that is the difference.

“If you have 30 rounds of ammunition and you cork it (gun) and it does not fire and you are facing criminals, it means you are going to be killed.

“We are going to take care of that. The entire armourers should check their ammunition to see that they are not expired; so that they would not jeopardise the lives of our officers while on duty.

“This is a national thing; I am directing all armourers in all the commands to update their armouries.”

It was learnt that the directive was as a result of a report by Sgt. Nicholas Enguru.

In the report, Eguru had said he was given a gun with 30 rounds of ammunition from the armoury but to his surprise, the gun could not fire because it had expired.

The Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr. Murtala Mani, said the command’s relationship with members of the public was cordial.