Vehicles released were for first lady’s police details, not personal use – IGP Idris replies Misau

Aisha Buhari

The Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has responded to reports that he signed off 2 vehicles for the use of the wife of the president, Aisha Buhari.

Isa Misau, senator representing Bauchi Central District, had earlier claimed that Idris gifted 2 vehicles – Toyota Prado SUVs – for the personal use of the first lady.

According to Punch, Misau had made the statement while appearing before the Senate Ad Hoc Committee on Investigation of Various Allegations Levelled Against the Police, the Inspector-General of Police and the Police Service Commission. He had said:

I still have some contract papers that the IG himself submitted to the court, where the First Lady through her aide-de-camp requested a Toyota Hiace and a Sienna jeep.

The same day that the ADC wrote, the IG minuted that she should be given two jeeps. And it is not part of the appropriation. If you look at the appropriation, there is nowhere they said the First Lady should be given two jeeps.

But in a statement signed by police spokesperson, Jimoh Moshood, the police IG said the vehicles were given to Aisha Buhari’s police detail, and they were 1 Toyota Sienna Bus and a Toyota Hiace Bus, not Prado SUVs. He said:

It is within the powers of the IG as stated above that when on January 17, 2017, SP Sani Baba-Inna, the ADC  to the wife of the President requested two vehicles for police personnel for convoy movement and security purposes, two vehicles, Toyota Sienna Bus with Reg. No. NPF 2406D and Toyota Hiace Bus with Reg. No. NPF 3363D, were approved by the Inspector-General of Police to the ADC, wife of the President, SP Sani Baba-Inna, for the purposes requested and not to the person of the wife of the President or for her personal use as alleged by Misau.

The first lady had before the statement released by the IG said she still used her personal cars, and did not receive the mentioned vehicles.

She had said this both through her personal Twitter, and in a statement released through her Director of Information, Suleiman Haruna.

She wrote on her Twitter, “I am still using my personal cars,” quoting a news report of Misau’s allegation.

I am still using my personal cars https://t.co/pfwasnUn4y

— Aisha M. Buhari (@aishambuhari) October 26, 2017

The statement released through Haruna also echoed the statement. It read:

Our attention has been drawn to the news being widely circulated and attributed to a member of the Senate that two SUVs from the Inspector-General of Police were given to the wife of the President, Mrs. Aisha Muhammadu Buhari, personally.

The wife of the President wants to make it clear that since the assumption of office of her husband as the President of Nigeria, she did not receive these mentioned vehicles.

Furthermore, the vehicles she is still using belong to the family and were the ones used during the campaign for 2015 elections including the one for her entourage.