Constables’ recruitment: Police intimidating us, PSC cries out

The authorities of Police Service Commission (PSC), on Friday, raised the alarm that the police high command is intimidating the agency over the ongoing issues regarding the recruitment of police constables.

The commission alleged that the force has been showing brute force and has hired many writers as well as commentators to run down the PSC, adding that the Force was created to enforce the law and not to circumvent it in whatever guise.

In a statement, Ikechukwu Ani, spokesman of PSC, alleged that the commission was aware that all these distractions were calculated attempts by the Police to hold on, by all means, to the recruitment of Constables despite the Supreme Court Judgment.

“This show of brute force and intimidation by the Police and most recently inducements of hired writers to run down the Commission in the Media is a serious affront on the mandate of the Commission,” the spokesman of the commission alleged.

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Daily Trust had reported how constant rancor between the two establishments stalled recruitment of 10,000 police constables with a view to injecting more manpower into the force to tackle ranging security challenges ravaging the country.

Kayode Egbetokun, had on Thursday, while meeting top police officers on the rank of AIG, and CPs at Force Headquarters, insisted that he would not accept what he described as “anyhow” recruitment carried out by the commission.

But reacting to the police boss’ stand, Ani called on the President, Bola Tinubu, to rein in the Inspectors-General of Police to respect the constitutional mandaten of the commission to recruit for the police.

“The Commission wishes to appeal to Mr. President to protect it and rein in the Nigeria Police Force to respect the Constitutional Mandate of the Commission to recruit.

“The Commission is disturbed at the flagrant abuse of ethics, the Constitution and valid judgment of the apex court of the land,” the commission stated in the statement.

Ani added that the Clcommission 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 perform this constitutional assignment.

According to him, the PSC demands that the Police should provide verifiable evidence to prove the allegations peddled against it, saying “it is obvious that it is a case of giving a dog a bad name in order to hang it.

“It is important to state that due process was meticulously followed throughout the exercise and the Commission wishes to assert its prerogative to exercise full control over recruitments into the Nigeria Police Force.

“The Commission is also insisting that its list of successful candidates and that of the Police should be subjected to a forensic audit using the result of the JAMB computer based test.”