Police Raises Alarm Over Corruption-Ridden Constable Recruitment List
By Anne Osemekeh, Abuja
The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) says it is distancing itself from the list of successful candidates in the 2022/23 Police Constables Recruitment Exercise as published by the Police Service Commission.
The Force PRO, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, in a statement on Saturday, said the development follows series of complaints and allegations of corruption raised by unsuspecting candidates and stakeholders on the irregularities that characterized the exercise, especially with regards to the disappearance of names of screened candidates who were successful to the last stage.
Adejobi disclosed that a careful scrutiny of the list released on the Police Service Commission (PSC) portal, revealed that several names of persons purported to be names of successful candidates are those who did not even apply and therefore did not take part in the recruitment exercise; also, that the published list contains several names of candidates who failed either the Computer Based Test (CBT) or the physical screening exercise or both, and that there are those who made it to the last stage of the exercise but were disqualified having been found medically unfit through the standardised medical test, but who also made the list of successful candidates as published by the PSC.
“Most worrisome is the allegation of financial dealings and corrupt practices leading to the outcome where unqualified and untrainable individuals have been shortlisted”, he said.
Adejobi further disclosed that the Inspector General of Police had, in a letter to the Chairman of the PSC on 10th June 2024, objected to the list, citing the aforementioned discoveries.
The reaction of the IGP was without prejudice to the power of the Commission to recruit for the police as ruled by the Supreme court, the Force spokesman said, adding that however, that “this power does not include the power to recruit unqualified and untrained individuals for the police”. He noted that it is the police that bears the brunt of recruitment of unqualified individuals and not the PSC.
“The same people who recruited anyhow for the police today will turn round to accuse the police tomorrow of inefficiency when their recruits start messing up.
The Police therefore has since dissociated itself from the published list and called for a review that will be transparent and credible”.
Adejobi recalled that the leadership of the Police Service Commission, after the pronouncement of the Supreme Court ruling on the powers of the Commission to recruit for the Police, constituted a Joint Recruitment Board, to be headed by one of the Commissioners of the PSC, with the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Training and Development in the Police Force as its Secretary. Surprisingly however, the Board was crippled and never allowed to carry out its mandate, insomuch that even the final list was not consented to by the Board.
While taking exception to the unpleasant development, the NPF called for a total review of the process with a view to recruiting qualified, competent, trainable and productive hands into the Force, in line with the vision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s led administration on police reform.
“The NPF hereby reiterates that we are not unconcerned about the plights and ordeals of prospective recruits, who have been subjected to all forms of rigorous screening exercise”, Adejobi said, ans added: “it is our commitment to ensure that the process is thoroughly reviewed, stands fruitful and successful for the betterment of the Nigeria Police, and by extension the country”.
