In his former role as Commissioner of Police in charge of Budget and Finance at the Nigeria Police Force Headquarters, Joseph Egbunike, head of the police internal panel probing Abba Kyari’s indictment in a recent FBI report on fraud conspiracy, joined other police chiefs to approve more than N1billion for sham police transit camps project in Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Katsina and Kano State.
Documents exclusively obtained by FIJ showed, for instance, that the two police camps, meant for Gbajimba, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, and Falgore Forest, Kano, were awarded to Karakas Development and Properties Nigeria Limited between 2018 and 2019 and were to be delivered within 14 weeks from the date of the contract agreement.
However, FIJ’s visit to the project locations revealed that nothing or little had been done — three years later.
The situation in Guma, Benue, by the end of January 2018, called for the presence of more security operatives. Over 70 people had been killed in a violent herdsmen invasion. Crops, farms and houses had also been destroyed. IDP camps in the area had filled up as survivors fled to them for safety. Several other people could not find shelter.
A similar thing was about to play out in Kano’s Falgore Forest. Bandits from Kebbi, Zamfara and Sokoto, as well as Niger and Chad had moved in with their wives and animals. They moved around the area with guns and had become threats to residents of surrounding communities.
But the Police would respond by approving the construction of sham transit camps. A source privy to the development of the project told FIJ that Egbunike, now a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), was directly in charge of the projects, given his office in the Budget and Finance section.