The police recruitment fraud

WHEN news surfaced recently that 925 names had been smuggled into the list of recruits during the recent recruitment of constables into the Nigeria Police Force, many had waived it off as fake news. The general belief was that the authorities would swiftly deny the story given its potentially damaging effects on the name and integrity of the beleaguered institution. To the bewilderment of the populace, however, the Police Service Commission (PSC) came out publicly to admit the obvious fraud perpetrated by some unscrupulous elements in the effort by the government to inject 10,000 new constables into the force. According to the commission, the 925 persons did not pass through the requite stages and processes of recruitment.

Instructively, the confirmation of underhand dealings followed insinuations that the PSC had been delaying the recruitment exercise. The commission however claimed that those constables that were properly recruited had been screened, given appointment letters, captured into the Integrated Pay-Roll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) for the payment of their salaries and allowances, but that it had still bent “backwards to accommodate those on the controverted list that neither applied for the job nor went through screening, aptitude test and medical examination.” The PSC further justified its action on what it described as the “overall interest of the nation, as state resources had been expended on them and the beneficiaries exposed to weapons and weaponry.”

It is surprising that neither the commission nor any other appropriate authorities initiated punitive actions against those behind the fraudulent act and national embarrassment, at least to act as a deterrent. As a matter of fact, neither the PSC nor the police headquarters has unveiled their identities, and not even the Ministry of Police Affairs has seen any need to comment on the issue. Yet, the consequences of this act of irresponsibility and roguery are grave. This again raises the question of disregard for due process and the sanctity of rules and regulations in the conduct of public affairs. It equally underlines the culture of disdain and impunity among the privileged few in the Nigerian society, people who relish cutting corners and shortchanging the system to get what they do not deserve. Long accustomed to breaking the rules, these individuals deprive other citizens of their rights and privileges with relish.

It is appalling and condemnable that an important exercise like the recruitment of police personnel could be turned into yet another job-for-the-boys jamboree, a stage performance for sacred cows. It is this kind of episode and mentality that warranted the lamentation of a former Nigerian leader on the factors responsible for the poor quality of personnel in the force in a similar recruitment process in the past. That leader had quipped that the force was recruiting criminals into its fold. If anything, the gripping details emerging from the various panels set up as in the aftermath of the #EndSARS protests against police brutality also underscore the procedural issues in the country’s policing system.

Truth be told, the current irregularities are sufficient to instill fear and anxiety in the populace. The society is certainly imperiled if the flagrant disregard for due process is not immediately addressed, redressed and the culprits and beneficiaries appropriately sanctioned, prosecuted and enlisted in the Hall of Infamy. We declared without hesitation that those smuggled into the police recruitment exercise are criminals and can never serve the cause of justice. Nigerians want to know the identities of those that perpetrated the fraud and their accomplices because their odious actions have brought shame and ridicule to the country. The society is indeed in serious trouble if the men and women being recruited into a very important and strategic institution like the police force are misfits and criminals. We are not impressed with the PSC’s so-called “national interest” which legitimizes crime and criminals through unholy accommodation. The culprits and their sponsors should have been prosecuted and jailed, not foisted on law-abiding Nigerians.

Individuals entrusted with ensuring law and order ought to be above board; they ought to symbolise the conscience of the society and friendship. They must stand on a high moral ground to command respect, and live by their professional ethics and mandate. The smuggling of names into the list of new constables is another form of unbridled corruption.

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