(By Femi Folaranmi – YENAGOA)
 
The Bayelsa State government has condemned in strong terms the manner and mode of the recent recruitment exercise of the Nigeria Police Force.
It called on President Buhari to order an investigation into the recruitment and bring to book those culpable in the corruption Bayelsa state government said it has uncovered in the process.
A government statement signed by the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Hon. Jonathan Obuebite, described the process as not only lopsided, but a fraud against the people of Bayelsa State.
The statement noted that a situation where names of non-Bayelsans were used to fill positions meant for Bayelsans was not acceptable and totally against the principles of federal character and due-process.
According to him, while each local government area across the country was meant to produce 10 candidates, that of Bayelsa were filled with fictitious names of persons who are not from the particular local government areas in question.
Obuebite in ‎the statement emphasized that Bayelsa, consisting of 8 local government areas, was entitled to 80 candidates, but the lopsided manner in which the recruitment exercise was conducted had further depleted the state’s quota.
‎He called on the Independent Corrupt Practices and related offences Commission (ICPC), the Police Service, and Federal Character Commission, as well as other related agencies of the federal government to urgently investigate, correct the anomaly and bring the perpetrators of the fraud to book.
Obuebite stressed that failure to correct the seeming imbalance and fraud against Bayelsa and the Ijaw people would be seen as a deliberate move by the system to shortchange the state, its citizens and the Ijaw people.