Police Recruitment: 136,177 Candidates Screened, Says PSC

•Arase laments poor quality of ‘outstanding’ candidates

Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja

The Police Service Commission (PSC) said yesterday that a total of 136,177 candidates for the ongoing police recruitment exercise were screened just six days after the commencement of the exercise on Monday, January 8, 2024, throughout the federation.

But the Chairman of the commission, Solomon Arase, raised the alarm that field reports showed a curious development where many candidates with outstanding Senior Secondary School Examinations (SSCE) certificates and National Examination Council (NECO) certificates could not write their names or ordinarily introduce themselves.

He wondered how they acquired such excellent certificates adding that aptitude tests coming as a first stage of the recruitment process will help eliminate obviously unqualified candidates and reduce the size of persons that would subsequently appear for screening.

The commission, through the police recruitment board, is currently screening 416, 270 Nigerian youths who have shown interest and applied to be considered for a career in the Nigeria Police Force.

A statement by the commission said the candidates were subjected to physical and credentials screening, a prelude to an aptitude test and other processes including medical examination.

With the ongoing recruitment exercise, it said, the agency had upgraded and automated the processes to ensure its credibility and create a measurable standard for final selection of successful candidates.

It said the results and outcome of the screening exercise were uploaded in real time to the commission’s portal and monitored by the situation room set up and led by commission’s Chairman, Solomon Arase, a retired Inspector General of Police.

It affirmed that “out of the 136, 177 candidates screened, 108,768 were successfully uploaded; the difference being problems/challenges from fluctuating network”.

The PSC Chairman, who is the national co-coordinator for the recruitment exercise expressed his satisfaction with the commitment of both the commission’s staff, the police officials and other members of the police recruitment board.

He confirmed that there was a commendable improvement in both screening and uploading rates and a complementary daily reportage of figures.

Arase congratulated the field work force and charged them to sustain the momentum.

“Let’s maintain this momentum and strive for even greater achievements”, he said.

He assured the candidates that they should not panic and be rest assured that they will all be screened before the end of the screening exercise, adding that he was aware of the heavy traffic at the screening centres.

The PSC boss said the commission is giving the nation a new and credible platform for recruitment into the public service insisting that the ongoing police recruitment will surely meet all known international standards devoid of any manipulation.

He repeated that the nation will be proud of the products of this exercise. He however said the commission may review the sequence of the exercise where the aptitude tests may come first.

He noted that reports from the field showed a curious development where many candidates with outstanding Senior Secondary School Certicates (SSSC) and National Examination Council certificates cannot write their names or ordinarily introduce themselves.

He wondered how they acquired such excellent certificates adding that aptitude tests coming as a first stage of the recruitment process will help eliminate obviously unqualified candidates and reduce the size of persons that would subsequently appear for screening.

He disclosed that the commission will surely get it right and produce a template for effective and efficient recruitment exercise in Nigeria. “When we get it right at the entry point, we would have almost gotten sixty percent quality in the expected performance of the officers and that is our objective”, he said.