Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa
A group, Rural Peoples Assembly (RPA) has called for an investigation into alleged fraudulent admission in the Nigeria Police Academy.
The group in a petition titled “Petition Requesting Investigation into a Case of Impersonation And Conversion of Bayelsa State Admission Quota to Non- Indigenes for Admission into The Nigeria Police Academy” signed by its counsel, Aniso Abraham, and addressed to the Bayelsa State Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, said there were grounds to suspect that some persons admitted into the police academy impersonated Bayelsans so as to fill the state quota.
RPA which cited four of such persons “who sat for examinations under the state’s quota and are actually not from Bayelsa State” said this was not the first time such cases of alleged fraud was happening and listed some names as evidence that Bayelsa State was being short-changed in police admission exercise.
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The petition reads in part: “In view of these findings, my client is constrained to state that such fraud against any state of Nigeria is utterly unacceptable and is inimical to the development of the indigenes and state in general as this fraud reduces the numerical representation of personnel from the state in the Nigeria Police Force and robs interested applicants from the state the opportunity to undergo their academic pursuit in the academy.”
It called on relevant authorities to conduct their investigation with all due diligence and ensure that the perpetrators were brought to book.
In the same vein, a group, Patriotism Advancement and Community Orientation Network (PACON) has called for a full-scale investigation into the allegations by RPA.
The convener of PACON, Mr Aluzu Ebikebuna Augustine, called on “the Nigeria Police Selection Board to conduct a thorough investigation into this petition and prosecute those found culpable for perjury and forgery.”
PACON which said it had also received several complaints of activities of a syndicate that substitutes and sells spaces meant for Bayelsans, vowed that it would ensure those behind the fraud were apprehended and prosecuted.
“We thank the Rural People’s Assembly for drawing the attention of the relevant agencies into the allegations. We shall continue to advance the course of the Ijaw nation as circumstances permit. Those found wanting should be replaced immediately with qualified Bayelsans. The government of the state should take decisive action on this matter as the police academy recently on December 18, 2018 graduated the first set of ASP Cadets with only few of them from Bayelsa State,” he said.