Businessman sells Police SUVs

They are selling fast. For some months now, hundreds of brand new Toyota Prado SUVs parked within the premises of the Abuja Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture, Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport road, are been sold to interested Nigerians.

That should make any vehicle seller happy.Except, in this case the owner of the cars, is no ordinary car dealer. The Toyota cars are what is left of the cars imported and distributed to some security agencies in Nigeria by Kenny Martins, the national coordinator of the controversial Police Equipment Fund which later became known as the Police Equipment Foundation.

About half a thousand of the cars are now left within the premises of the Chamber. The Director General of the agency, Joe Wenwgieme, said the cars belong to a private company which is renting the chamber's premises to store its merchandise while it looks for interested buyers.

"The number of cars is gradually reducing as the new owner of the cars have started marketing them," he said.

Mr. Wenwgieme refused to disclose the identity of the new owners.

The controversy that engulfed the Police trust fund in late 2007 meant the SUVs could not be distributed to the security agencies they were intended for. The initial contract that brought in the cars was underwritten by Oceanic bank.

The institution has now apparently resold the cars to a private company, which in turn is now selling the cars to interested members of the public at N3.5 million each; a price far less than the N13 million price Mr. Martins said he paid for the cars.

The PEF was the brain child of three associates, Godson Ewulum, a businessman; Joseph Agharite and Ibrahim Dumuje who agreed on the formation of a Fund they said would provide a sustainable solution to the poor funding of the Nigerian Police and its lack of standard equipment.

However, Mr. Martins, a brother in-law to the former president, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, who was reportedly co-opted by the group to help lobby the government and other targeted private sector individuals to contribute to the fund, expanded the target of the body from N1 billion to N100 billion, and from just the police which the initial proponents intended to include all other security agencies.

Matter in court

Mr. Martins is currently facing charges of deception, forgery and scam in an Abuja Magistrate court for his role in the management of the money raised by the fund. He is also being grilled for alleged diversion of public funds, jointly raised by the Presidential Committee on Police Equipment Fund (PCPEF) and the Police Equipment Fund, to his private organisation, the Police Equipment Foundation.

Lagos lawyer and a counsel to Mr. Martins, Festus Keyamo said he was not aware that the cars have been sold to another person. He said he was also unaware of Oceanic Bank's involvement in the deal.

He however said that the Fund does not own any property, but rather raised funds for the police. "Therefore, the SUVs belong to the Nigerian Police," he said.

The police said it did not know anything about the cars. Emmanuel Ojukwu, Police National Public Relations Officer, said he is not aware of the cars and is not sure they belong to the police. All our efforts to reach the management of Oceanic Bank for their reaction,did not succeed.

Even Mr. Martins said he would not comment on the issue. "The matter is in court," he said.