The acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Suleiman Abba, on Friday denied allegations that funds deducted from salaries of police men for the ‘police cooperatives’ of which he is Chairman of the board, was being siphoned through misappropriation.
Speaking during the distribution of shares certificates of Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank to men of the Nigeria Police Force, Abba said, “I must tell you the system in handling deductions in police cooperatives has been going on for many years; if anybody is complaining or is having problems with crediting his account I think something is really wrong”.
The acting IGP noted that: “Even if it exists it may not be unconnected with the fact that we have been struggling to computerize the activities of the cooperative”, he said adding that, “There may be delay but not that anybody is tampering with funds”.
Expressing concerns over the fears that the funds were being siphoned, he said: “I must tell you, I was worried because up till last week some of us were complaining that it was fraudulent and if I tell you I wasn’t worried I will be telling lies, because my hands were in it”.
Continuing, Abba said: “I was entrusted with the funds in the cooperatives and I was contributing billions to that venture (Police Mortgage Bank). If for any reason things had gone wrong, it wasn’t only the former IG that would have been blamed”.
Speaking on the shares certificates of the Police Mortgage Bank distributed to policemen, IGP Abba said the establishment of the bank was to enable the police easy access to the funds of the National Housing Scheme.
He said: “If you hear the billions we have been contributing so far and we have not been able to access it, because we do not have an organized way of accessing it, you will agree with me that establishing the mortgage bank was a worthwhile venture”.
