Bayelsa Rejects Police Recruitment List, Says It’s Fraudulent

Emmanuel Addeh in Yenagoa

The Bayelsa State Government friday rejected the list of policemen recently employed by the federal government, describing it as fraudulent.

It condemned in ‘strong and unequivocal terms’, the manner and mode of the recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Police Force and called for an immediate probe into the process.

A government statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Jonathan Obuebite, described the process as not only lopsided, but a fraud against the people of the state.

The statement noted that a situation where names of non-Bayelsans were used to fill the positions meant for the people of the state, was not acceptable and totally against the principles of federal character and due process.
According to the government, while each local government area across the country was meant to produce 10 candidates, those of Bayelsa were filled with fictitious names of persons, who are not from the particular local government areas.

The government emphasised that Bayelsa, made up of eight local government areas was entitled to 80 candidates, but added that the lopsided manner in which the recruitment exercise was conducted, has further depleted the state’s quota.

It called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Police Service and Federal Character Commissions, as well as other related agencies of the government to urgently investigate, correct the anomaly and equally bring the perpetrators of the “fraud” to book.

It stressed that failure to correct the seeming imbalance and fraud against Bayelsa and the Ijaw ethnic nationality, would be seen as a deliberate move by the Nigerian system to short-change the state, its people and the entire Ijaw ethnic nationality.

The state government called on President Muhammadu Buhari to step into the matter, arguing that it was a dent on the current fight against corruption in Nigeria.

Bayelsa had also recently protested against alleged lopsided selection of ambassadorial nominees and the recruitment into the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).