2019 POLICE RECRUITMENT: PSC Has Cleared Recruites for Payment

……. Says 925 persons were illegally recruited by the Police

Oru Leonard

The Police Service Commission is not withholding the payment of any Police Constable properly recruited in 2019. According the Mr Ikechukwu Ani, the spokesperson of PSC, “The Commission has since screened the list of the supposedly successful candidates sent to it by the Office of the Inspector General of Police. The Commission has also released appointment letters to the candidates and approved their capturing into the Integrated Pay- Roll and personnel Information System, (IPPIS) for the payment of their salaries and allowances.”

The Commission noted that it had to bend backwards to accommodate the list of these candidates even after the Court of Appeal gave judgment in favour of the Commission nullifying the hijack of the recruitment exercise by the Nigeria Police Force. The Appeal Court judgment which is still subsisting had declared the exercise null and void and returned the Constitutional Powers of the Commission to recruit all persons into the Nigeria Police Force.

It is also necessary to clarify that in the cause of screening of the list of the 10,000 successful candidates, the Commission discovered that 925 persons never applied for recruitment and did not go through the stages and processes of recruitment. These included screening, aptitude test and medical examinations.

The Commission however in the overall interest of the nation and considering that resources had been expended in the training of these Candidates and that these candidates had been exposed to weapon and weaponry decided to rescreen them. These Candidates already rescreened, except those found to be criminally minded (with mutilated certificates) are expected to be absorbed into the Force.

The Commission is expected to approve their recruitment at its next Plenary Meeting holding next week after which they will receive letters of appointment and subsequently captured by IPPIS.