Abuja – Allegations of sharp practices levelled against the embattled Inspector General of Police (IGP), Ibrahim ldris, by the senator representing Bauchi Central Senatorial District, Isah Misau, have taken a new twist.
ACNN learnt on Sunday that not only the Senate but also the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has launched discrete investigations into the allegations.
Senator Misau, who is Chairman, Senate Committee on Navy, alleged there were petitions of corruption brought against the IGP by undisclosed number of police officers and civilians.
He accused Idris of granting fraudulent promotions to undeserving policemen and extorting huge sums of money from Commissioners of Police, State Mobile Commanders and Special Protection Units Commanders for favourable postings.
He maintained that the IGP was also involved in sexual harassment of female police officers, which had resulted in him impregnating two of them, one of whom he secretly got married to against Police Service Rules.
Based on the petitions, the anti-graft agency has launched discreet investigations to establish evidence of corruption against the police boss.
Spokesman of the commission, Wilson Uwujaren, was, however, evasive when contacted to confirm EFCC’s efforts in trying to establish the allegations against Idris.
However, a source in the anti-graft agency, pleading anonymity, confided in INDEPENDENT over the weekend, in Abuja, saying, “Although the presidency has yet to officially refer the case to us, we have started investigations, based on the petitions already with us.”
The source, however, did not want to go further on the identity of those who brought the petitions against Idris, or the number of such petitions with the EFCC; or indeed if a prima facie case had already been established against the embattled IGP.
Senator Misau specifically accused Idris of collecting about N120 billion annually from oil companies to provide them with security cover and from Mobile Police Squadron Commanders.
Responding to Misau’s allegations, the police boss, Idris, accused Senator Misau, who was a former police officer, of desertion.
Idris accused Misau of retiring from the force without due process, a charge which the Senate directed its Committee on Ethics, Privileges and Public Petitions to investigate.
Apart from the senator’s allegations, there were allegations mid this year that one Barrister Emma, based in Onigbongbo, Maryland, Lagos, was deeply involved in collecting bribes to the tune of N10 million for the posting of Mobile Squadron Commanders.
Posting of squadron commanders is the sole prerogative of the IGP, and the said Barrister Emma, was alleged to be in charge, turning his Maryland residence into a Mecca of some sort for desperate police officers who thronged it, armed with gratifications, for the postings.
It was also alleged that the lawyer had unfettered access to the IGP whose office is on the 7th floor of Force Headquarters building, Louis Edet House, Abuja; and that he was dreaded by senior officers.
A senior officer at the Force Headquarters (FHQ), who pleaded anonymity, disclosed to that, “Barrister Emma was actually well known at FHQ,” adding “I have met him twice in the office of one of the Deputy Inspectors General of Police (DIGs).”
He said the lawyer wielded so much power in the police because of his link to the presidency.
Meanwhile, in an attempt to specifically stop Senate probe into the allegations, Idris, early October, approached a High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, praying for an order restraining the Senate and its President, Bukola Saraki, from going ahead with their plan to investigate his alleged malpractices in the police.
In the fundamental rights enforcement action in suit no. FCT/HC/CV/3158/17, the IGP prayed the court to declare that the Senate committee set up to probe the allegations, as well as the conduct of the committee, are unconstitutional, null and void.
He further prayed the court to give an order directing the committee from neither inviting him, sitting, conducting any hearing on the allegation, nor making any report in respect of the intended investigation pending the determination of his suit.
But while the Senate and EFCC, as INDEPENDENT can report, have launched investigations into Idris’ alleged corrupt practices, the Federal Government, through the Office of the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, initiated two separate sets of charges against the whistle-blowing Misau.
The government, on October 10, filed the two separate sets of charges, one of which was marked FCT/HC/CR/345/2017.
In the suit before the FCT High Court, the prosecution preferred against Misau five counts of making “injurious falsehood” against Idris and the Nigeria Police Force based on various allegations of corruption made by the senator against the IGP in the media.
In the other set of charges, marked FHC/ABJ/CR/170/2017, the prosecution preferred seven counts of making and uttering false documents comprising affidavits, statutory declaration of age deposed to at the FCT High Court, and the Bauchi State Health Management Board Birth Certificate, which he allegedly submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in 2011 and 2014.
It would be recalled that the acting Chairman of EFCC, Ibrahim Magu, was the team leader that investigated former IGP Tafa Balogun who was jailed for corruption.
