PSC Inaugurates Board to Recruit 10,000 Police Constables

The Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Solomon Arase, inaugurated a new board saddled with recruiting police constables into the Nigeria Police.

Arase charged the board members to recruit only the best Nigerians for the force.

Speaking in Abuja, Arase said the recruitment would commence soon while stating that it was coming on the heels of presidential approval for the annual recruitment of 10,000 personnel into the police.

He said it was part of President Bola Tinubu’s electoral promise to strengthen the force and improve its operational capability to resolve the country’s insecurity.

The former inspector general of police said, “The task of recruiting qualified people of good conduct and character is no doubt an arduous one but can be made easier through the cooperation and assistance of our community leaders and traditional and religious institutions.”

Arase added, “Every Nigerian who is desirous of police reforms in our dear country is, therefore, implored to assist the board during the recruitment exercise by ensuring that the bad eggs in society are not foisted on the board and/or allowed to surreptitiously get recruited into the NPF without alerting the board through whistle-blowing.”

The police commission boss listed the board’s terms of reference to include determining and declaring the available vacancies in the police that need to be filled and drawing up guidelines for every recruitment process in the force.

Others are determining the online platform to be employed in the advertorials and recruitment of applicants and the placement of advertorials in national dailies and other forms of information dissemination on the recruitment, among others.

Arase urged the board members to shun corruption, urging them to “strive like Caesar’s wife to be above board” during the recruitment exercise.

In his response, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (in charge of the Training Department of the Force), Bala Ciroma, assured that the board would carry out its assignment diligently to be devoid of conflicts of interest in the national interest.

Members of the board inaugurated at the headquarters of the PSC in Jabi, Abuja, are Onyemuche Nnamani (the chairman of the board and commissioner representing the South-East zone at the PSC), Olabode Akinbamilowo (the secretary, a Deputy Commissioner of Police), Ciroma, Alhaji Muhammed Magaji (from the Ministry of Police Affairs), Ifeoma Anyanwutaku (the Permanent Secretary of the PSC), Prof. Joseph Olowofela (from the Federal Character Commission) and CP Hassan Yabanet (representative of police colleges).

Others are Yusuf Sanusi (of the Recruitment Department of the PSC), Sani Usman Hada (of the ICT Unit of the PSC), Barr. Victoria Onyekwuluije (of the Legal Department of the PSC) and DSP Ahanmisi Obehi (of the Office of the Chairman of the PSC).

Hitherto, the police commission and the police were engaged in protracted litigation over which had the powers and responsibilities to recruit personnel for the force.

A Supreme Court judgment resolved the legal tussle in favour of the commission.