Acting Inspector General of Police Mike Okiro, his immediate predecessor Sunday Ehindero and several other serving law enforcement top brass have been implicated in a cash scandal currently rocking the police.
We can authoritatively report that John Obaniyi, a commissioner in charge of finance at the police headquarters, and a principal target of investigations into the source of N21 million seized while being moved out of Police Headquarters in Abuja, has named Okiro, Ehindero and others in shady financial deals.
Obaniyi was recently indicted for corruption by a panel set up by Okiro.
But Obaniyi, whose statement implicating senior police officers was being suppressed, has smuggled out his original statement that accuses senior police officers of participating in an elaborate corruption scheme.
According to Obaniyi’s statement, the former Inspector General of Police, Sunday Ehindero, actually stole the
N21 million found in Obaniyi's possession.
Besides, Obaniyi revealed that several members of the police hierarchy shared close to N100 million from funds provided to the police to help rig the April
2007 elections.
Obaniyi’s statement specifically asserted that Deputy Inspector General Onovo was paid N6 million while Mike Okiro received N5 million. Two principal staff officers attached to the IG, namely Solomon Arasen
(PSO1) and Leye Oyebade (PSO2), received N3 million and N2 million respectively. The statement also accused the police spokesman, Haz Iwendi, of taking N2 million from the fund that was shared.
Obaniyi's statement confirms widespread speculation that several senior police officers were fully involved in the cash scandal, hence the insistence by Okiro that the investigation must be conducted internally, not farmed out to other anti-corruption agencies.
Okiro was said to be deeply involved in the rigging of the April 2007 elections, the reason he has instructed his officers not to cooperate with electoral tribunals looking into election fraud cases across Nigeria.
According to the statements, Obaniyi called for independent bodies to investigate his case with the police authorities, a source who obtained the statements for Saharareporters, said "he (John Obaniyi) continues to deny any wrong doing" stating that he was doing the biddings of his bosses, but was caught on the wrong side of their internal politics. He expressed serious fears that the police hierarchy might kill him by poisoning his food and then claim that he committed "suicide".
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