The saga rocking the recruitment list of Police personnel and constables has continued to generate massive controversies.
This is as the Police Service Commission (PSC) has challenged the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun to provide verifiable evidence to support his claims that the recruitment process of Police personnel and constables was marred by irregularities and corruption.
The PSC cautioned that it is not enough for Egbetokun and the Nigerian Police Force(NPF) to make baseless allegations. The PSC challenged the NPF to prove its claims with evidential facts.
In a statement signed by its Head of Press and Public Relations, Ikechukwu Ani, on Friday, the PSC declared that it was obvious that the NPF was out to malign the high reputation of the PSC.
The statement reads in part: “The Commission has at every turn suffered several indignities in its attempt to perform functions provided to it by the Constitution even after the Supreme Court decided the matter in its favour.
“That this show of brute force and intimidation by the Police and most recently inducements of hired writers to run down the Commission in the Media is a serious affront to the mandate of the Commission.
“The Commission has studied the issues around this successfully concluded recruitment exercise and has concluded that even after the Supreme Court Judgment, the Police is reluctant to allow the Commission to perform this constitutional assignment.
“The Commission demands that the Police should provide verifiable evidence to prove the allegations peddled against it as it is obvious that it is a case of giving a dog a bad name to hang it.”
It would be recalled that IGP Egbetokun, had in a statement issued by the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, rejected the recruitment exercise conducted recently by the PSC.
In the statement, Adejobi disclosed that Egbetokun had written to the PSC raising concerns on the inclusion of several names of persons who didn’t even apply and didn’t take part in the recruitment exercise.
Adejobi also alleged that the list also included names of candidates who had failed either the Computer Test or the physical screening, as well as those disqualified for being medically unfit.
It would be recalled that PSC chairman and a retired Inspector General of Police (GP), Mr Solomon Arase had been sacked by President Tinubu over alleged fraudulent handling of the last recruitment process into the NPF.
The New Diplomat had also reported that the Joint Union Congress of the PSC had vehemently denied the allegations and later demanded the removal of the Egbetokun for purportedly making baseless allegations.
The Chairman of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN) and Joint Union Congress of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Adoyi Adoyi, had said he has evidence that some powerful individuals in the police Force wanted to include unknown names in the recruitment list but that the PSC under the leadership of retired IGP Solomon Arase stood firm and rejected all attempts to add unqualified persons.
