The Police Service Commission (PSC) says it will disqualify and handover applicants seeking employment into Nigerian 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 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.
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“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 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 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)