A
large crowd gathered yesterday at the Police College, Kaduna, venue of the
ongoing recruitment exercise for 10,000 policemen into the Police Force.
A visit to the venue of the recruitment revealed that although the police commission said it did not anticipate any crowd as successful applicants would be invited batch by batch after collation of the names, the scenario at the venue was different as applicants trooped in from various states.
Applicants
who spoke on condition of anonymity complained of too much crowd. “So many
people have been fainting because of the crowd and the heat. There is this
particular woman that fainted here earlier. People had to get sachet water and
we continuously poured it on her to resuscitate her. Even finding a way to
check names on the list is a death trap because the exercise is not well
organised,” one of them said.
Another said that so many people turned up because there was no proper communication from the police authorities, explaining, “Some of our colleagues have seen their names but they have not received emails, while some have received emails, but have not seen their names on the list pasted. The whole thing is just disjointed.”
In Plateau State, traffic troubles in Jos became the result of over 9,000 young men and women jostling for police job screening.
Joseph Gomwolk Way, a major road by which the police state headquarters is located, was choked up by mass of applicants.
The Police Service Commission (PSC) pasted a list of applicants qualified for screening, and the applicants started arriving at daybreak to find out about their names, causing serious traffic gridlock.
In Plateau State, 9,203 were shortlisted, but not many had the text message to proceed for the screening, and they had to turn out by the wall of the fence to check their names and to proceed for the screening at an open space not far from the fence.
State police command spokesman, DSP Emmanuel Abuh confirmed that not all applicants got text messages communicating them on the shortlisted names, as a result of which authorities were compelled to past the lists on the wall for all applicants.
“There are no hitches in the exercise. It is just that not every applicant got text messages to proceed for the screening. So they had to come to check the list that was pasted,” DSP Abuh said.
In Gombe State where 7, 758 people applied to join the force, the screening exercise started around 8am and it was orderly.
Gombe Police Command spokesperson DSP Ahmed Usman said the command did not expect hitches because the applicants were split into batches for the two-week exercise. “The first batch for cadets ASP and inspectors will be conducted between today (yesterday) and tomorrow (today), while the remaining 12 days will be for other ranks and files,” DSP Usman said.
About 9,116 police applicants yesterday began the screening exercise in Katsina State.
A visit to the state police headquarters , venue of the screening, showed a large crowd of applicants waiting to be attended to.
The commands spokesman DSP Abubakar Sadiq said a Commissioner of Police, Abubakar Dilli, from force headquarters was supervising the whole exercise along with officials of the Police Service Commission.
Meanwhile, the Kaduna State Police Command has called on applicants in the ongoing screening to be patient, assuring that all candidates would be adequately attended to.
A statement by the Commands Spokesperson, DSP Zubairu Abubakar, said the exercise was slated for 18 days, and that candidates were spread across the days.
He said, “The Kaduna state Police Command, like other commands of the federation, has started the screening of the shortlisted applicants.... All shortlisted applicants should exercise patience as they will be adequately attended.”
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