By Mumini AbdulKareem
An underground plan to relocate the Nigeria Police Public Relations School, located at Kulende in Ilorin the Kwara state capital has been uncovered.
Construction work on the multimillion naira project, which was flagged off by the immediate past Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris through the AIG (Works), Olalekan Oladipupo commenced after the contractor for the project was mobilised.
There are reports that the new hierarchy of the police under the leadership of the Police, Acting Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, is planning to relocate the project to Keffi in Nasarawa State, his home country.
This development is already generating debate in the Ilorin community as the people are wondering how a project of such magnitude that went through all due processes could overnight be relocated from its original site to another state despite the level of work already carried out on the site.
It was learnt that the project was originally approved by the Presidency and the National Assembly and captured in the 2018 budget of the police.
In all the memos, Ilorin was the community approved for the project to be cited with the name Nigeria Police Public Relations School, Kulende, Ilorin.
A visit to the site of the project showed that work had stopped despite the fact that the contractor had been mobilised while it was reliably gathered that directives to stop the project was from the police headquarters in Abuja.
It would be recalled that in mid 2017, the former IGP, Ibrahim Idris approved a Committee of Professionals, Senior Police Officers and FPRO then (Ag DCP Jimoh Moshood) to set up the establishment of Nigeria Police Public Relations School for the Nigeria Police Force.
The then IGP and the management team in July, 2017 approved a memo from the FPRO for CP Emmanuel Ojukwu (rtd) to be the Provost of the school and that the permanent site for Nigeria Police Public Relations School be located within Police land at Kulende, Ilorin, Kwara State and other processes for the construction of the school.
The committee met severally with NIPR (Nigeria Institute of Public Relations) and the school was flagged-off by the immediate past IGP Ibrahim and management team at its temporary site at Police Account and Budget Building opposite Force Headquarters on August 10, 2017
The Nigeria Police Public Relations School, Kulende, Ilorin was included in the National Appropriation Budget of 2018 submitted by President Muhammadu Buhari to the National Assembly in 2017.
It was passed by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018.
It was reliably gathered that the project is in the 2018 and 2019 budgets and have been processed to be rolled over to the 2020 and 2021 estimate.
In 2018, the bid was open by the Nigeria Police Force and contract for the project was awarded and payment made to the contractor.
On the January 11, 2019, a ground breaking and foundation laying ceremony of the Nigeria Police Public Relations School, Kulende, Ilorin was performed by the then police boss (represented by AIG Works, Olalekan A.F Oladipupo) and the Emir of Ilorin (represented by Balogun Agba of Ilorin, who is the Balogun Gambari of Ilorin).
In attendance were the then Commissioner of Police, Kwara State, CP Bashir Makama, Provost of the School, CP Emmanuel Ojukwu (rtd) who delivered a key note address, the National President and executives of the Ilorin Emirates Descendants Progressive Union (IEDPU), AIG Ojibara (rtd), AIG Baba Bolanta, Alhaji Aliyu Oba Ajikobi, Prof Hassan Salihu and many other retired senior police officers from Kwara State.
The contractor continued the project to appreciable level until some unidentified persons asked the contractor to stop work and conspired to relocate the school to Keffi, Nasarawa State.
Concerned Citizens of Ilorin and Kwara state also called for the intervention of the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and Bureau of Public Procurement to intervene in the matter, stressing that National Budget is an issue of law that must not be violated.
