- Candidates allegedly forced to pay millions of Naira into private accounts
There are indications that the controversy that dogged the recent attempt by the federal government to recruit 10,000 Constables for the Nigerian Police Force has taken a fresh twist as the Police Service Commission (PSC) is reportedly investigating some officers who abused the recruitment exercise to become millionaires.
One of the officers (name withheld), who has been fingered as the brain box of the syndicate, has reportedly been suspended as the PSC launched an investigation into the matter.
The PSC, it was gathered, is investigating how the syndicate was able to manipulate what they assumed was “the water-tight result” of a CBT test which erstwhile chairman, Dr. Solomon Arase, begged the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) to conduct for the PSC.
PSC sources revealed that a Supritendent of Police who until recently was in the training department at the Force headquarters, is currently facing investigation for allegedly being the conduit through which huge sums of monies were channelled to insert the names of unqualified applicants into a dedicated police recruitment portal outside the one set up by the PSC.
PSC investigations, it was gathered, uncovered a particular private bank account which members of the syndicate made thousands of candidates pay monies into. The investigators linked the bank account to a certain Abuja-based hotel which the now suspended officer claimed belonged to his brother.
The officer, it was further gathered, is believed to be close to top brass of the police establishment. “He is so confident that his connections would save him, the result of the investigation notwithstanding,” offered a PSC official, who added that “he is so powerful that he even threatened to remove any PSC officer the same way he removed Dr. Solomon Arase as PSC chairman”.
Thr new PSC heiriarchy is reportedly astonished that whereas neither the police nor the PSC engaged the services of consultants to aid in the recruitment, a Sergeant who enjoys the protection of a serving AIG, without any approval, engaged the services of two consultants: Clickers Digital System with a GTBank number and Elite Palace with an FCMB account, through which huge sums of money were collected from prospective applicants.
Sources familiar with the investigation also revealed that the officer who has being transfered out of the headquarters to a North East state to allow for proper investigation by the PSC, may not be working alone.
A high ranking police officer from the Southeast said to have been the architect of the syndicate, PSC sources added, used his position and charm to make several State Governors from his zone, to allegedly part with large sums of money to fill their state’s slots with unqualified candidates into the recruitment list.
Recall that in March, 171,956 candidates drawn from all the 774 local government areas in the country sat for the PSC-CTB examinations conducted by JAMB. The Commission was scouring for 10,000 candidates who passed the CBT for enlistment as Constables into the Nigerian Police Force.
Dr. Arase, as the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), served as the Inspector- General of Police in 2015. While justifying the need to get JAMB to conduct the examination, he said “Nigeria needs the right police personnel with mental mobility and fertile minds to relate effectively with the public.”
Arase’s insistence on a transparent and professional recruitment process apparently didn’t sit well with some top politicians and police top brass who allegedly wanted to hijack the process and handle the recruitment themselves.
According to sources in the Commission, Arase was convinced that if the problem of the Police was to be tackled on a long term basis, it must be tackled at the recruitment level especially those at the lower and mid cadre of the force,
“As a former Inspector General of Police, he understood the problem and was willing to do his best to solve it. He wanted the recruitment exercise to be based on merit and due process. He wanted those who wrote the computer-based assessment test and made the cutoff mark to be the ones considered for recruitment into the force.
“There were clear criteria outlined for the exercise. In each state of the federation those who made the cutoff marks were to be prioritized. There was also consideration for female candidates to ensure gender balance. This is the first time the Commission was carrying out a recruitment process in line with its mandate, and Dr. Arase wanted to set a standard that was to become the basic minimum,” stated the source.
Arase lost in the intrigues and powerplay between the Commission and the Nigeria Police Force and was in July replaced by Hashim Argungu, a retired deputy Inspector-General of Police.
Not long after the assumption of office of the new PCS chairman, he, like Arase, was confronted with the controversies facing the recruitment process.
Investigation showed that not long after Arase left office, the police heirachy jettisoned the CBT test carried out by the PSC under him and opted to use a different list for the exercise.
