The Police Services Commission (PSC) has suspended the previously released Police Recruitment Exercise 2022 to allow eligible Nigerians to join the force.
The Commission’s decision to halt the process came after the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) disapproved of the recruitment exercise published as an advert in a national daily a few weeks ago.
The NPF had asked Nigerians to disregard the information, saying the registration website enlisted by the PSC was not associated with the Force.
Therefore, the CPS acknowledged the police response to the developing situation and called on Nigerians to be patient as it resolved the issues with force.
“The Commission wishes to declare that all contentious issues surrounding the exercise will be resolved between the two parties in the interest of the nation,” read a statement from the PSC, signed by its spokesman Ikechukwu Ani.
But Force spokesperson CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who appeared on Channels television program Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, noted that the police had no problem with the CFP over the recruitment process while giving more information about issuing a statement.
He noted that there was a need to publicly inform Nigerians who were already distressed with the information to be at rest as the portal listed by the CPS was not functional and was “not going to have any effect. at the end of the day”.
Other than that, Adejobi said the police were not ready to recruit or train more officers as they were unable to take on such a responsibility at the moment.
“As we are not initiating any investigation into this matter, we felt that Nigerians should know that we are not ready for the 2022 recruitment exercise at the moment. It’s a process.
“We have just recruited 2021, and they resumed training just two weeks ago, and we are talking about 10,000 people. Where would you have the capacity to train them? Our training schools are busy at the moment and we are not ready for that,” he said.
He did, however, hint at the possibility of launching the 2022 recruitment exercise, if the CPS gave in to the conditions which made the 2020 and 2021 exercises without a hitch.
“Even if the commission wanted to start the recruitment exercise, he would have consulted the IGP (Inspector General of Police Usman Alkali-Baba), we need a committee. We’ve had this and for the past two years haven’t had any issues. The 2020 recruitment exercise went smoothly.
“Anyone can recruit. PSC is our employer, including myself. Only the IGP is not used by the commission.
“So when we’re ready, we’re going to meet, the service commission will have a representative, the Nigerian police and a federal figure, that’s it. So we probably have between three and four parties involved in the recruitment. So , we’ll all get together and make it easier, and then we’ll issue another statement.
The public clash between the two sides began in 2019 when a decision by former IGP Muhammed Adamu to recruit 10,000 officers was overturned by the PSC in court.
While the Federal High Court upheld the IGP’s recruitment powers, the Court of Appeal subsequently overturned the judgment of the former, giving the PSC a mandate to manage the recruitment exercise as provided for by the constitution.
According to the 1999 Constitution, Part 1 of the Third Schedule states that: “The Commission shall have the power to (a) appoint persons to positions (other than the office of Inspector General of Police) within the Nigerian Police”.
While Section 18(1) of the Nigerian Police Act 2020, assented to by President Muhammadu Buhari, states that: the Inspector General of Police.
