Muyiwa Adejobi, the Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Police Force, has accused traditional chiefs, local government chairpersons, and some senior police officers and army officers of compromising the police recruitment process in order to ensure their relations were hired even if they were unfit for the police service.
Mr Adejobi stated this on Twitter space organised by Premium Times to discuss issues relating to police brutality, which was monitored by SaharaReporters on Wednesday evening.
This comes as musician Seun Kuti, the last son of Afrobeat pioneer, Fela Kuti, is facing trial for allegedly physically assaulting a police officer, as captured in a viral video.
Adejobi blamed the unprofessionalism that had characterised the police force on the recruitment process, adding that those entrusted with the responsibility of recommending potential police officers always do so to benefit their cronies and allies, rather than the advancement of the force.
He said, “The Nigerian Police and our society; they are two entities that are hardly inseparable. They are connected together and you can see the reflection of so many social dislocations, even the police itself, starting from recruitment.
“When we asked people to recommend applicants for us, people that are revered in the society… still betrayed us by giving us bad elements in the society to come.
“I called them the condemned ones to join the police because there are some people now that ordinarily you are going to be surprised to even see them in the police in the first instance, that you wonder how these people managed to join the police.
“I was actually referring to those that we see as referees, who are to recommend police officers or applicants to us. I am talking of the traditional rulers, local government chairmen, and officers not below the rank of CSP or lieutenant colonel in the military. They are actually recommending applicants to us, we don’t expect less from them but I feel disappointed.”
“I was a recruitment officer for more than nine years as a PRO before I came to Abuja. I have seen a lot and I know what I am saying, that they would recommend somebody who is not fit, who is not competent to be in the police to us. They come up that I am king, and a king is recommending that this is my kinsman, this is my boy who is this and this, but behold, it is another thing we found,” he added.