SCID quizzes policeman over missing crime diary

Detectives attached to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Lagos State Police Command, have quizzed a policeman, Sgt. Nwagha Bale, over the alleged disappearance of a crime diary from his custody.
It was learnt that Bale, who is the crime recorder and custodian of the Area ‘E’ Police Command, FESTAC Town, Lagos, could not provide the crime diary when he was asked to produce it.It was gathered that the missing diary contained details of a case linked to an assistant commissioner of police in charge of one of the area commands in the state.

A police source told our correspondent that the case was “incidented” in the missing crime diary on July 9, 2012.

He added that it was discovered that the diary had gone missing when the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, demanded it.

The source said, “A signal was sent to Bale’s area commander that he should make himself available to the SCID on Tuesday and he was quizzed between 10:40 am and noon.

“The Inspector-General of Police who is interested in the case, assigned the SCID to investigate the circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the diary and that was why he was invited for questioning.

“He is the number one suspect in the disappearance of the diary. This is so because his duty is to keep all crime diaries both exhausted ones and those in use as well as render details and statistics when he is asked to do so.”

However, the details of the case involving the assistant commissioner of police could not be ascertained as at press time.

When contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer of the command, Ngozi Braide, confirmed to our correspondent on the telephone that Bale was quizzed at the SCID.

Braide however said that the file that was missing was an “exhausted routine diary.”

She said, “I just called the area commander in charge of Area ‘E’ and he told me that it was the Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of State Criminal Investigation Department that invited Bale for an interview.

“The missing document is an exhausted routine diary and not a crime diary. The routine diary got exhausted sometimes last year and they are just looking for it and it is nothing serious.”