Police cadets

The websites of the Nigerian Police Force and the Police Service Commission  are down, obviously because thousands of Nigerians interested in joining the police are logging on to access the application forms.

Many attempts made by our reporter this morning failed to access the two sites. While the NPF site http://www.npf.gov.ng. opened partially, the Police Service Commission’s site,  http://www.psc.gov.ng/ just simply refused to respond, indications that the two sites are unable to cope with the upsurge in traffic. Certainly, they were not prepared to handle such huge traffic.

Last night, our reporter visited the two sites effortlessly and found that the free  application forms to be filled by applicants for the 10,000 police jobs have not been uploaded.

Instead, visitors were told to watch out for newspaper advertisements on the 10,000 jobs, approved by President Muhammadu Buhari last year.

Here was  the full message on the  two sites:

“POLICE SERVICE COMMISSION: This is the only acceptable medium to submit your application for recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force.

We have not started receiving applications! We shall advertise in National Dailies.”

The Police Service Commission headed by Sir Mike Okiro had announced last week it would begin the process to fill the vacancies in the police today, launching to boot a new portal, to be linked to the PSC and NPF sites.

Here is the address of the portal, which we advice you link direct instead of going through the NPF and PSC site: http://www.npfcareers2016.net/

On Thursday, the PSC  reinforced its readiness to begin the recruitment process by  warning its staff against compromising the exercise.

In a statement issued by Mr Ikechukwu Ani, Head, Press and Public Relations of the commission, PSC staff were warned not to compromise the integrity of the exercise.

It warned that any staff involved in any misconduct during the exercise would be sanctioned in line with the Public Service Rules and may be prosecuted for sabotage.

The statement said the staff must live above board as the commission was ready to make a huge success of the presidential assignment.

It also warned the candidates to desist from indulging or inducing the staff as anyone caught would be arrested and prosecuted.

The statement further warned that there would be no short-cut in the exercise as everything had been put in place to ensure that the integrity of the process was preserved.

But as things are,  the cyberspace is giving the exercise its greatest test of integrity.

*Updated at 10.46 am with the address of the portal