The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, PSC, Retired Inspector General of Police, Musiliu Smith has resigned his appointment.
Spokesman of the Commission, Ikechukwu Ani, confirmed the resignation but noted that an official statement from the Commission giving details will be issued Thursday.
TheFact Daily gathers that the retired Police Chief who had been at loggerheads with the Police hierarchy over the organization constitutionally responsible for the recruitment of Constables into the Nigerian Police Force, was said to have resigned on the grounds of ill health.
It would be recalled that the PSC had in August opened its portal for the recruitment of police constable for the year 2022 and placed an advert on the recruitment in a national daily.
In response to the development, however, the Nigeria Police Force in a statement by its Public Relations Officer, CSP Muyiwa Adejobi, had asked Nigerians to disregard the advertisement and call for applications as it had no connection with the Nigeria Police Force and was not in tandem with the police recruitment process.
The Force, in the statement, assured citizens that the commencement of the 2022 recruitment exercise will be announced via the official police e-recruitment website and advertisements on national dailies and official police social media accounts as and when due.
Interestingly, despite the stance of the Police headquarters, the PSC recruitment portal for constables into the Nigeria Police has been running with over 60,000 applications received.
Ani, had said in a statement last week that the Commission had no intention to abdicate its constitutional mandate to recruit Nigerians into the Police Force.
He urged interested Nigerians to continue to avail themselves of the opportunity to pursue a career in the Nigeria Police Force adding that the portal, which was opened on Aug. 15, would be closed on Aug. 26.
Smith had also been at loggerheads with former IGP, Mohammed Adamu, over which body is allowed by law to carry out the recruitment process, a development that led to the Commission dragging Adamu and the Force to court for conducting the recruitment exercise of 10,000 constables in 2019.
It is noted also that personnel of the Commission had earlier this month, called for Smith’s resignation over alleged ineptitude.
Following Smith’s resignation, the second most senior Commissioner in the PSC, Retired Supreme Court Justice, Clara Ogunbiyi, who is representling the Judiciary, has assumes duty as interim Chairman.
