A good number of exhibits recovered from suspects and kept in the custody of the police across the country usually end up being pilfered, The Point investigation has revealed. Our correspondent gathered that most of such items, which are usually of commercial value, were either recovered at crime scenes or seized from arrested suspects in their respective hide-outs.
An insider source hinted that few of such exhibits or recovered items would eventually be sold at public auctions to interested members of the public, while articles of high commercial value among them, including vehicles, would be “distributed and shared” by some police officers, who took part in apprehending the high profile criminals from whom the items were recovered.
crime proceed is any benefit derived by a person from the commercial exploitation of notoriety, resulting directly or indirectly from the person committing an indictable offence
Further checks revealed that public advertisement of such items inviting the general public to come forward with the intention of laying claim to the exhibits, were nothing more than an administrative routine exercise, after all.
Painstaking investigations revealed how the multi-million naira recovered valuables, usually kept with exhibit keepers, often disappear from police custody across the country.
It was discovered that many of the police exhibit keepers usually capitalise on unwholesome police routine audit of such exhibits by illegally converting such items of commercial value to personal use or simply colluding with suspected criminals for a return of the items to them.
This fraudulent practice, according to insiders, not only breaches public trust and proceeds of crime laws, but also is very unethical. It is on record in the force that many police exhibit keepers have absconded from their duty posts after looting the materials kept in their care.
“Such exhibits could be arms and ammunition, cash, gadgets or anything of commercial value. The fact of the matter is that exhibits could have been kept for as long as four to five years with dusty labels on them. The exhibit keepers, who hardly go on annual leave, would capitalise on the age of such crammed items to his own advantage.
“At times, most of the items often listed as exhibits are for window dressing because they have for long vanished from such rooms,” a source said.
Police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity with our correspondent at the Legal Department of the State Criminal Investigation Department, M.A.K. Smith Street, Yaba, Lagos, defined exhibit as any object tenable in the court of law to prove the guilt or otherwise of any suspect charged for an offence.
They also defined crime proceeds as any benefit derived by a person from the commercial exploitation of notoriety, resulting directly or indirectly from the person committing an indictable offence.
Speaking on our findings, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Olarinde Thomas Cole, said he was not sure if any of the exhibit keepers under the command had been involved in any form of sharp practices.
Thomas-Cole, a superintendent of police, said that any officer who tampered with exhibits kept in his/her custody, would be made to face stern disciplinary action.
He further told our correspondent that exhibit keeping is usually by appointment based on the integrity of the officer to be so appointed and that any breach in the course of keeping items of legal value could result in dismissal or prosecution, as the case may be.
The police image maker, however, declined to comment on the procedure for public auctioning of goods, directing our correspondent to any accredited auctioneer, “who would be in the best position to answer questions relating to such.”
Olarinde noted that the police, as a professional body, had a mechanism for checking exhibits kept with the keepers, adding, “The checkers are auditors with proved track records of excellent performance.” He, therefore, advised exhibit keepers to always abide by police ethics and compliance.
