The police high command has berated constant loss of firearms by its officers, saying the development has been traced to the negligence of the personnel and their poor knowledge of weapon handling.

The force specifically said the development continued unabated due to what it described as “insensitive deployment” of policemen by the senior officers.

Daily Trust reports that the force’s disapproval was contained in a police wireless message emanated from “TERROFOR ABUJA” and obtained exclusively by our correspondent on Sunday.

The message came amidst a probe initiated by the Nigerian Senate over the report released by the Auditor-General of the Federation (AuGF) on the missing 3,907 assault rifles.

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The Senate had last month grilled the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun and the Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of Public Accounts and Budget, Suleiman Abdul, over the missing rifles.

The top police cops were grilled when they appeared before the Senate Committee on Public Accounts at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja.

But in a swift reaction, the spokesman for the force, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, an ACP, clarified that the rifles were carted away by the hoodlums and that the number given by the AuGF was outrageous.

However, in the wireless message with reference number CQ: 2400/DOPS/CTU/FHQ/ABJ/VOL. 10/90, and sent to Lagos, Port Harcourt, FCT, Aba, Warri and Damaturu, the police senior officers were warned that they will be dealt with if such incident happens again.

Other places it was sent to include: Owerri, Maiduguri, Bauchi, Enugu, Jos, Minna, Kano, Yola, Ibadan, Makurdi, Lokoja, Gusau, Gombe, Lafia, Ilorin, Yenagoa, Uyo, FHQ, Okija, Kaduna and Uburu.

The message also directed senior police officers to be rendering monthly returns of arms and ammunition on or before every 23rd of every month.