The attention of the Police Service Commission has been drawn to an editorial in Nigerian Tribune of Thursday, August 15th, 2019, page 13, captioned “Police recruitment and credentials verification”
The editorial seems to find fault with the Commission’s position which is in line with Public Service Rules, that authentication of the certificates of applicants for recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force as in other Public Service Institutions are not restricted only to the screening/interview stage of the recruitment.
The editorial also seems not comfortable with the fact that the certificates of some already successful candidates are sent to the awarding Institutions for authentication during their training programme at the designated Police colleges. And in the judgment of the editorial, the recruitment was being trivialized by the Commission. This conclusion, no doubt, is unfair to the efforts on the ground to ensure the emergence of good materials.
The Commission has gone through the publication which was obviously lacking in the knowledge of the recruitment process in the public service generally and particularly in the Nigeria Police Force. Ignoring the publication in the Nigerian Tribune would have been a disservice to the members of the public who might be misled by the publication.
The Commission therefore wishes to state as follows;
That recruitment in the public service is a process and not an event and starts from the point of when advertisement is placed for interested persons to apply based on clearly defined qualifications and requirements.
That the process is not concluded until when during the course of training successful candidates are subjected to prescribed examinations and interview.
That investigation into the certificates or other credentials of applicants with doubtful genuineness usually extended to the awarding institutions.
For entrants into the Nigeria Police Force, successful candidates are required to undergo training in designated Police Colleges and are subjected to examination especially during the concluding part of the training programme
It is important to state that a candidate must satisfy some screening stages before he/she is considered suitable to join the Nigeria Police Force. These stages include medical screening, physical screening, written examination and authentication of certificates.
It is also note worthy to state that candidates discovered to have applied with or presented forged or fake certificates are not only disqualified but arrested and handed over to the Police for investigation and prosecution.
The Commission wishes to assure members of the public of her determination to continue to discharge all her constitutional responsibilities diligently. It has no intention to deviate from this sacred obligation to the nation.