ICIR petitions President Tinubu, demands Solomon Arase’s investigation, suspension
The International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR) has petitioned President Bola Tinubu, calling for an investigation into and suspension of Police Service Commission (PSC) Chairman Solomon Arase over allegations of fraud.
The petition also targets Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun, accusing him of intimidating ICIR staff following a report that implicated Arase in a fraudulent land deal.
Dated June 6, 2024, and signed by ICIR Executive Director Dayo Aiyetan, the petition was copied to several high-level officials, including the National Security Adviser, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, and leaders of various media and human rights organisations.
The ICIR demands an independent investigation into the allegations of fraud involving the sale of police property, conducted without police involvement.
It also calls for the IGP to prevent the Nigerian Police Cyber Crime Centre (NPF-NCCC) or any other police arm from intimidating ICIR staff and trustees, and for Arase to stop using his position to harass ICIR personnel.
Furthermore, the ICIR urges the suspension of Arase from his role as PSC Chairman to allow for an unbiased investigation.
The ICIR report alleges that police officers assisted contractor Andy Chime, Managing Director of Copran International Limited, in forging the signature of a deceased Deputy Inspector-General of Police to secure a contract.
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This contract involved obtaining a loan of N573 million from the Nigeria Police Mortgage Bank, using police residential quarters as collateral, which were originally intended for police barracks.
The report further accuses former IGPs Ibrahim Idris and Solomon Arase of receiving house allocations worth over N200 million as incentives for awarding the estate development contract to Chime.
Following the report’s publication, ICIR staff members Dayo Aiyetan and Nurudeen Akewushola were detained for over nine hours by the NPF-NCCC.
The petition to President Tinubu highlights that the police seemed more focused on protecting those accused of the fraudulent sale than investigating the allegations and recovering police property. It also notes that the NPF-NCCC Director Uche Ifeanyi Henry was more interested in the sources of the ICIR report than in Chime’s accusations.
“Curiously, during the interrogation of Aiyetan and Akewushola by the NPF-NCCC, the investigating officers and the Director of the NPF-NCCC, Uche Ifeanyi Henry, were not interested in Andy Chime’s accusations but the source of the ICIR’s report and the evidence it had against Mr. Arase,” the petition stated.
The ICIR argues that Arase’s petition, written on the PSC letterhead, represents a flagrant abuse of office aimed at intimidating ICIR journalists.
The organisation calls for President Tinubu to institute an independent investigation, ensure police do not harass journalists, and suspend Arase to prevent further abuse of office.
“The harassment of the ICIR journalists is the latest in a trend whereby the Police has abducted or arrested journalists for alleged cyberstalking for merely publishing reports which the subjects of investigative reports find offensive. We regard this trend of attacking the media as a dangerous one and an attack on our democracy,” the petition read.
The petition also requests that Arase be restricted from using his office to influence the intimidation of ICIR staff and that his suspension be enforced to allow for a fair investigation of the corruption allegations.
Recent trends show journalists have been targeted by the police under the amended Cybercrimes Act, which had previously been ruled against by the ECOWAS Court.
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