Police to investigate, prosecute applicants with forged credentials

The Police Service Commission has said that it would disqualify
and hand over applicants seeking employment into the Nigeria Police
Force with forged or fake credentials to the police for
investigation and prosecution.

Mr Ikechukwu Ani, Head, Press and Public Relations of PSC,
disclosed this in a statement on Monday, in Abuja.

He said the clarification followed a publication in the
editorial of one of the National Dailies on August 15, with the
caption “Police recruitment and credential verification”.

According to him, the editorial seems to find fault with the
commission’s position that authentication of certificates of
applicants are not restricted to the screening/interview stage of
the recruitment.

“The editorial 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.

“In the judgment of the editorial, the recruitment was being
trivialised by the commission. This conclusion, no doubt, is unfair
as efforts are on the ground to ensure the emergence of good
materials.’’

Ani said that the commission had gone through the publication
and discovered that it was obviously lacking in knowledge of the
recruitment process in the public service, and the Nigeria Police
Force in particular.

He said that the recruitment in the public service was a process
and not an event adding that, it starts from the point of
advertisement where qualifications and requirements were clearly
defined.

Ani said that the process would not be concluded until the
candidates were certified successful during training, after being
subjected to prescribed examinations and interview.

He said the investigation into the certificates or other
credentials of applicants that were in doubt were 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,” he
added.

(NAN)