The Police Service Commission has reported that a total of 136,177 candidates have undergone screening for the position of constables since the commencement of the exercise on January 8.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Public Relations Officer of the PSC, Ikechukwu Ani, revealed that details of 108,768 of the screened applicants have already been uploaded.

Ani attributed the delay in uploading the remaining details to network challenges.

“The ongoing recruitment process, conducted by the Police Recruitment Board, involves the screening of 416,270 Nigerian youths who aspire to join the Nigeria Police Force.

“The candidates are currently undergoing physical and credentials screenings, followed by an aptitude test and other stages, including a medical examination.

“To enhance the credibility of the recruitment process, the commission has upgraded and automated the procedures, ensuring real-time uploading of results and outcomes to the commission’s portal.

“The entire process is monitored by the Situation Room, led by Commission Chairman Mr. Solomon Arase, a retired Inspector-General of Police.”

While commending officials for the progress made, Chairman Arase expressed concern over reports indicating that some candidates, despite possessing impressive Senior Secondary School Certificates and National Examination Council Certificates, were unable to write their names or introduce themselves properly.

Arase emphasised the importance of aptitude tests as the first stage of the recruitment process to filter out unqualified candidates and streamline the number of individuals progressing to subsequent screening stages.

He stressed the need to establish an effective and efficient recruitment system to ensure a high standard of performance from the recruited officers.

“When we get it right at the entry point, we would have almost achieved 60 per cent quality in the expected performance of the officers, and that is our objective,” Ani quoted Chairman Arase as saying.