THE Police Service Commission (PSC) has challenged the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, to provide evidence of allegations that the recruitment exercise it recently conducted was marred by corruption.
This was contained in a press release signed by the commission’s head, Press and Public Relations Unit, Ikechukwu Ani, on Friday, June 21.
“The Commission has studied the issues around this successfully concluded recruitment exercise and has come to the conclusion that even after the Supreme Court Judgment, the Police is reluctant to allow the Commission to perform this constitutional assignment.
“The Commission demands that the Police should provide verifiable evidence to prove the allegations peddled against it as it is obvious that it is a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it,” part of the statement read.
Ani also noted that due process was followed during the exercise and demanded that a forensic audit be carried out on the list of successful candidates published by both organisations.
The PSC had released a list of successful candidates recruited into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), but the NPF rejected it, arguing that the PSC portal was scrutinised and several names released did not apply for the job and, therefore could not have emerged on the list.
The NPF dissociated itself from the list of candidates and called for a review.
However, the PSC’s Joint Union Congress (JUC) dismissed the allegations at a press briefing on Wednesday, June 19. The congress also alleged that elements within the Police Force attempted to smuggle over 1,000 names into the recruitment list.
In the statement on Friday, Ani pointed out that the NPF was acting in contradiction to the Supreme Court ruling which does not permit any other person or body to conduct recruitment for the NPF.
“The Commission however had, in its wisdom, invited relevant stakeholders into a Board for the recruitment exercise to ensure inclusiveness and transparency. This magnanimity has since been misconstrued. It is relevant to state that the judgment and even the Constitution did not give the Police any role in the recruitment of any cadre of Officers into the Police Force,” Ani noted.
He also pointed out that fraudulent recruitments by the Police had contributed to the challenges currently confronting the system.
“It is unfortunate that the Police has attributed its obvious failure to protect lives and properties and safeguard our nation from banditry and terrorism to bad recruitment. This claim is self-indicting and provocative. Since 2019 when the Police forcefully snatched the exercise from the Commission, they have gone ahead against the provisions of the law to superintendent over the 2020 and 2021 exercises.
“It is the fraudulent Recruits they brought into the system during these exercises that are currently haunting the Nigeria Police Force,” Ani noted.
The statement also alleged that the allegations of fraud were aimed at taking over the recruitment from the Commission.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via vopara@icirnigeria.org or @ije_le on Twitter.