Azie the Auditor and Criminality in Africa
Yep it has been a while. Nor is this a full return. My interest is the justice system in Nigeria as it represents all of Africa. A 31 year old Nigerian was sented to 45 years imprisonment without option of a fine for stealing the mobile phone of a governor while people-in-power cart away billions and receive plea-deals.
There is also the curious case of the impunity of false accounting. I dare wager this is not wide spread malady in the core services as I know several upcoming officers who were dismissed or forfeited ranks for missing weapons. Indeed someone was demoted even though his weapon was missing for barely 10 hours!
Regardless, Mr Segun Adeniyi has this competently covered. Happy reading!
There is also the curious case of the impunity of false accounting. I dare wager this is not wide spread malady in the core services as I know several upcoming officers who were dismissed or forfeited ranks for missing weapons. Indeed someone was demoted even though his weapon was missing for barely 10 hours!
Regardless, Mr Segun Adeniyi has this competently covered. Happy reading!
The Vindication of Vincent Azie
The Verdict By Olusegun Adeniyi. Email, olusegun.adeniyi@thisdaylive.com
On February 10, 2003, Mr Vincent Azie, then acting Auditor-General of
the Federation was sacked by President Olusegun Obasanjo. The
controversial decision was predicated on the damning 2001 audit report
Azie authored which incriminated the three arms of government. Then
Finance Minister, Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, accused Azie of demonstrating
“incompetence” by rushing to the press with the report instead of
passing it to the Accountant-General of the Federation. Ciroma’s
Information counterpart, Professor Jerry Gana, argued in similar line,
saying Azie was unprofessional by releasing the report to the public
without first passing it to the appropriate agencies for their comments.
Even if there were procedural breaches in the manner the report was
released, the reaction of the Federal Government at the time was
essentially because Azie’s report was indeed damning. It revealed how
billions of Naira were collected for purchases not made, contracts not
executed and for the supply of what in most cases were simply listed as
“various items”. Because the report was so thorough and comprehensive,
the Federal Government resorted to technicalities to rubbish Azie who
was unceremoniously eased out of the system.
Although what the media feasted upon at the time was the litany of
corrupt practices in the three arms of government as presented by the
Auditor General, when I eventually read the full report which contained
434 sections and 301 pages, I discovered an important aspect that was
not in the public domain yet had far-reaching implications for our
national security. In my column on March 13, 2003, I brought out this
critical issue in a piece titled “Murder Made Easy, By Vincent Azie”.
Given the crime rate in our country today, I leave readers with an
abridged version of that column published more than ten years ago on
this page so everyone can draw their own conclusions:
...The most alarming aspect of Azie’s report is the audit of the
weapons in the hands of the police. While lack of accountability in
funds management can be tolerated by Nigerians as we have been doing for
four decades now, lack of accountability when it comes to the weapons
in the hands of our security agencies, especially police, however,
portends great danger to all of us. Many people have in recent times
wondered why there are so many guns in the hands of armed robbers,
assassins and the likes. Well, Azie’s report may provide some clues.
Because guns are neither cheap nor easy to come by. However, since
Azie’s report covers only the police, only God knows what happens in the
Army, Navy, Air Force and other security agencies like the State
Security Service (SSS). But even from his report, we can see that we are
in big trouble in Nigeria.
In the period under review, at the Ebonyi State Police Command,
Abakaliki, one Lar rifle number 1692253 with 10 rounds of ammunition was
snatched by armed robbers. At Jalingo police command, the examination
of Arms and Ammunition Register indicated that the underlisted rifles
and pistols were missing: 12 G.3 Rifle, one AR Pistol, one SMG Rifle,
one Baretta Rifle, two Riot Gumers, five FNC Rifles, one Mark 4 Rifle,
two K.2 Rifles and one Long Range Pistol. At Enugu Mobile Force,
according to Azie, audit examination revealed that seven arms were
missing, four of them Lar Rifles numbers 1692706, 1693708,1693891 and
1693464 while the other three were SMG Rifles with numbers 16579,165778
and 24162.
At Federal Intelligence and Investigation Bureau (FIIB), Alagbon, the
following observations were made by Azie: “Eight Brownie pistols issued
to eight officers of the Force CID, Alagbon between 1993 and 2001 were
yet to be returned to the Arms store as at the time of the audit in June
2002. Some of these officers had either been retired or re-deployed to
other departments. Similarly, three Brownie Pistols issued to three
officers of the FIIB, Alagbon were reported to have been lost. The
circumstances surrounding the disappearance and non-recovery of these
arms were not explained.”
At the Nigerian Police Force Area ‘E’ Headquarters Festac Town, Lagos,
one Light Automatic Rifle with number 1694953 was snatched by armed
robbers on March 2000. At Isolo Police Station, one Baretta pistol
number A063282 was reportedly snatched by armed robbers on 6 April 2001.
At Mushin police station, one K.2 Rifle number 061553 with seven rounds
of ammunition and one FCN Rifle number 052868 with five rounds of
ammunition were snatched by armed robbers on 25th November 2000. At the
same station, two K-2 Rifle number 61679 and 301067 with 20 and 16
rounds of ammunition and one Lar Rifle number 1697239 were snatched by
armed robbers on 3rd September 2001. At the Nigerian Police Alakuko,
Agege, one K-2 Rifle number 302079 with 10 rounds of ammunition, two FNC
Rifles numbers 97-045156 and 97-046146 with 20 rounds of ammunitions
and one Lar Rifle number 1668406 with 16 rounds of ammunition were lost
to armed robbers on 21st November 2000. At the Makinde police station,
Oshodi, one Chief Revolver pistol number 9D42759 issued to an officer on
8th April 2000 and one Wembley Revolver pistol number B.2811 issued to
another officer on 11th October 2000 could not be produced for audit
verification.
But this dangerous trend is not restricted to Lagos, it is nationwide
as armed robbers seem to find it so easy to “snatch” weapons from
policemen. In Akwa Ibom state, according to Azie, two revolver pistols
numbers 9B09777 and 9D09375 with six rounds of ammunition each were
snatched by armed robbers at the Police Headquarters, Eket. At
divisional police headquarters, Oron, one revolver pistol with six
rounds of ammunition was lost by a police sergeant on 20th April 2000
during an arrest. Azie added: “I am yet to receive the report of the
loss of this asset in accordance with the provisions of the Financial
Regulations”.
At the Divisional police, Itu, one Assault Rifle number 40786 and 15
round of ammunition; one G.3 Rifle number 69115010 and 15 rounds of
ammunition and one SMG Rifle number OFN25792 and ten rounds of
ammunition were snatched by armed robbers after killing the policemen.
At the same station, another Baretta pistol number 101762 with 58 rounds
of ammunition could not be produced for audit verification while the
pistol and ammunition were taken away by the divisional police officer
who had been transferred to Delta state. At the divisional police
headquarters, Mkpa Enin, one G3 Rifle number 8018474 with 20 rounds of
ammunition and one Chief Revolver pistol number 8D88754 with six rounds
of ammunition were snatched by armed robbers. At the ‘B’ Operation
division, Sokoto, the audit inspection of the Armoury in August 2001
revealed that a Lar Rifle number 1696558 was also snatched by armed
robbers on 4 September 2000. In the same station, a Baretta pistol
number AO6626 was reported missing while the officer carrying it was on
specific duty on 25th July 2000.
At the ‘13’ Department Operations, the Arms and Ammunition Register
showed that one SMG number 20233 was reported stolen in 1998 by a police
corporal while one SMG number 9205 was claimed to have been deposited
at the Benin police command after the police sergeant was involved in an
accident. Also lost to men of the underworld are one Scorpion F.5424
which was allegedly snatched by armed robbers, two Assault Rifles number
40897 and 31692 were equally snatched by armed robbers. One G.3 Rifle
number 69050137 was reported missing. One Rifle number 8107655 with 20
rounds of ammunition was said to have been deposited at the Oyo State
police command after a motor accident while one Mark 4 Rifle was
reported missing with another FMC Rifle number 98052318 also snatched by
armed robbers. During the examination of the accounting records
maintained at the Nigerian Police Force, MOPOL 4, Ibadan, it was
observed that seven officers who had been transferred to other commands
left with seven Baretta pistols issued to them. “The anomalies have been
brought to the attention of the Permanent Secretary whose response is
being awaited,” Azie stated as he listed the weapons that could not be
accounted for at virtually all police formations across the country.
Given the ease with which these weapons were being ‘snatched’ from the
police by armed robbers, Azie commented that something ought to be done
by the authority concerned: “considering the alarming rate at which arms
and ammunition disappear from the various formations, it has become
imperative that the mechanism for the issuance and control of these
weapons be reviewed so as to enhance their safe keeping and prevent
their getting into wrong and dangerous hands.”
With this situation in the police only God knows what happens in the
other armed services. I believe Azie has given us some clues and we
should begin to block these loopholes…
ENDNOTE: Because the 2001 audit report indicted both the executive and
the legislature, it was easy to dismiss it in its entirety while, rather
than be confirmed as Auditor General, Azie was removed and retired. And
since there were no sanctions for the police officers who were
evidently playing games with their weapons, that perhaps emboldened an
arms syndicate to move into the Nigerian Army. These criminal gangs were
operating from 1 Base Ordnance Depot Kaduna (1BODK) arms sheds, the
Ordnance Sub Depot (OSD) in Jaji and the Ordnance Field Park (OFP) in
Calabar, carting away heavy weapons. This much was revealed in the
report of an investigation carried out by former Chief of Army Staff,
the late Lt. General Luka Yusuf.
As I reported in my book on the Yar’Adua years, “the extent of the
theft was so staggering and the crime so well organized that the
investigating team could hardly determine the exact amount of arms
removed due to deliberate false accounting and destruction of stock
cards by the perpetrators. But the army chief noted that the arms and
ammunition removed included GPMGs, Sterling SMG, Bren LNG, AK 47 rifles,
Uzis, FNs, 3G, Cetme, M12 She Berettas, grenades, rocket launchers, and
several fragmentation jackets. Instructively, he said all the new UMGs,
as well as the used but serviceable GPMGs, RPG 7 and AK 47 rifles were
stolen.”
Perhaps if somebody had paid attention to Azie’s 2001 Audit Report,
especially in the area dealing with the handling of weapons by the
police and had taken adequate preventive measures, we probably would not
be in the kind of situation we are in today where our nation is now
practically under the gun!
45 Years for N50,000
An Osogbo High Court on Monday sentenced 31-year old Kelvin Ighodalo to
45 years imprisonment without any option of fine for stealing a mobile
handset valued at N50,000 belonging to Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun
State. In a nation where those who steal billions of Naira are either
“plea-bargained” out of justice or have ridiculous sentences served on
them, what the judgement means in practical terms (since nobody can
survive 45 years inside Nigerian prisons) is that this hapless man will
spend the remaining period of his life in jail for stealing something
worth N50,000. Nigeria indeed we hail thee!
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