By Emmanuel OGBECHE
A total of 92,223 applicants are jostling for the 10,000 available Constables positions, billed to be recruited into the Nigerian Police Force, nationwide.
The candidates sat for the Computer Based Aptitude Test in 45 centers across the country.
The police headquarters in collaboration with the Police Service Commission had in 2020 commenced recruitment of 10,000 police constables.
The process was, however, mired in controversy following the inability of the then police management team led by the former Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, to work with the commission.
Claiming exclusive rights to the recruitment of constables, the PSC had asked the Federal High Court to nullify the process already commenced by the police force but Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a judgment dismissed the suit for lacking in merit.
The ruling was, however, set aside by the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal, which, in a unanimous decision held that the IG lacked the power to recruit constables for the police force, and consequently nullified the said recruitment.
The process which continued in October with the Department of Training and Development publishing a list of successfully screened candidates to go on to the next stage of the recruitment exercise.
The list of candidates shows that 71.67 percent of the total number of successfully screened candidates actually hail from the northern part of the country, while only 26,130, candidates from the South, representing 28.33 percent of the total number of applicants, scaled the huddle.
It suggests that a total of 66, 093 candidates from the 19 northern states and the FCT, qualified for the CBAT which took place over the weekend as part of the recruitment process.
The document signed by the Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, a commissioner, further shows that Kaduna state has the highest number of qualified applicants with 6, 201 indigenes, while Katsina state with 5,895 qualified applicants is second.
Other states with high interest include Benue state with 5, 865 candidates, Kano with 5, 346 candidates, Adamawa with 4, 529 applicants.
Others are Bauchi with 3, 987 candidates, and Akwa Ibom state with 3, 807 candidates.
States like Lagos, Anambra and Bayelsa had the least number of candidates as only 361, 535 and 875 of their indigenes, respectively, indicated interest in the recruitment process.
The Federal Capital Territory also registered low number of applicants with just 871.
