Constable recruitment: States kick as Nasarawa gets 528 instead of 156 slots

Some states have kicked against the alleged lopsided allocation of slots by the police authorities in the ongoing recruitment of 10,000 constables.

The list of successful candidates indicates that Nasarawa, the home state of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had the highest number, with 528 candidates, followed by Katsina, President Muhammadu Buhari’s state, with 435 candidates.

This is happening against the backdrop of the recruitment scandal rocking the National Assembly in which job slots were given to lawmakers by federal agencies and ministries.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that Borno and Bauchi states had complained to the Police Service Commission about the observed discrepancies in the candidates’ list released by the police on their website last Sunday.

It was learnt that the states were directed to put their complaints in writing after they pointed out that they were short-changed in the exercise which awarded the highest slots of 528 to Nasarawa, which has 13 local government areas.

Based on the approved allocation of 12 candidates per local government, Nasarawa was meant to get 156 slots instead of 528 recorded in the published list.

Borno State with 27 local government areas had 274 candidates instead of 324, while Bauchi with 20 local government areas was given 232 slots instead of its entitled 240 candidates.

An analysis carried out by the Police Service Commission revealed that 372 candidates out of the 528 recruited from Nasarawa State did not apply for the job, but were allegedly included in the list.

Findings show that each local government area was supposed to get 12 slots, but investigations indicated that the police authorities did not give the states their due slots as the figures were allocated indiscriminately without regard for the number of local government areas in each state.

The document showed that Bauchi was short-changed by eight slots as it got 232 candidates instead of 240 while 43 illegal names were allegedly smuggled into the final list.