The inaugural meeting of the Police Recruitment Board was held in the Chairman’s Conference Room, Federal Secretariat Complex, Phase 1, Abuja, from Monday, 26th to Tuesday, 27th July, 2010. The Board which comprised of seventeen (17) Members, is made up of a Chairman, a Secretary and Assistant Secretary and a co-opted Member. It was inaugurated by the Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Parry B.O. Osayande DIG (Rtd), CFR, OFR, NPM, mni with the objective of making recruitment issue a serious one, ensuring that the right individuals are recruited into the NPF, ensuring that corrupt practices during recruitment are reduced to the barest minimal, ensuring the observance of due process and working out a road map for the proper recruitment process for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
In his opening remarks, the Chairman of the Board stated that the Board’s assignment was a daunting one. He said that the Board must put in place mechanism to ensure that all rules and regulations are adhered to, in the course of the recruitment process. He then thanked Members for responding to this call to service and appealed to them to put in their best. Members’ comments were varied; from the re-iteration of the importance of transparency and openness in the recruitment process to ensure only the best candidates are recruited, to the need to observe the Federal Character guidelines on recruitment, to make the process near fault-proof and to put the NPF and the nation above personal interest in the course of deliberations during the Board’s meetings.
The Board approved the following terms of reference:
1. To organize Appointment and Recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force.
2. To work out the criteria and process of recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force.
3. To stipulate the time frame for the conduct of recruitment process and trainings of successful candidate.
4. To institute and implement mechanism to prevent abuse of the recruitment process and
5. To perform any other function that will help in the achievement of proper Recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force.

The Board reviewed the previous recruitment exercise into the NPF and adopted the following recruitment process for the 2010 recruitment of Constables:
1) Announcement/Advertisement of the enlistment of Recruit Constables on the internet and national dailies;
2) Candidates to fill application forms and submit to Divisional Police Headquarters;
3) DPOs to comment on each application form with a view to ascertaining whether the applicant has any criminal antecedent or otherwise;
4) DPOs to collate and forward the submitted application forms to the State Police Command Headquarters;
5) Screening exercise to be conducted at the State Command Headquarters. The DPOs and the Area Commanders would be present at this screening exercise which would be supervised by the Recruitment Board’ s Representatives;
6) Examination would be conducted at the State level under the supervision of the Board. The Examination questions would be set by the NPF and that the numbering of the questions would be joggled to avoid exam malpractice. Also some staff of the Commission and one member of the NPF would be present at each examination venue to monitor the examination. Examination numbers would be assigned to each candidate on the day of the examination and each candidate is expected to fill only his examination number on the answer script. Candidates would be assessed on their knowledge of English Language, Mathematics and General Knowledge during the written examination, while they will be assessed on dictation during the oral interview;
7) Marking of the examination shall be done at the Zonal Command Headquarters, under the Chairmanship of the Zonal AIGs and supervision of the Board;
8) The examination results would be collated by the Board;
9) Release of the results by the Board after the approval of the Commission;
10) Successful candidates would report to the training institutions thereafter.
During the training program, the Commandants of the various training institutions would screen candidates and the Board would also conduct a random/ on the spot screening of candidates.
The Board also approved the following:
i. A thorough supervision of the entire process to ensure that the 2010
recruitment exercise was near fault-proof.
ii. Verification of credentials to ensure that only candidates with genuine certificates are admitted and those with fake certificates will not only be rejected but prosecuted.
iii. Parallel monitoring would be on ground to monitor the monitors of the recruitment exercise.
iv. Setting up of Committees on exams, publicity, monitoring, budget and administration, and training with specific terms of reference to ensure a hitch-free recruitment exercise.
v. Zonal monitoring teams to cover the six geo-political zones in the country.
vi. Nineteen thousand (19, 000) candidates would be recruited; as that is the capacity the Colleges and Training Institutions would be able to carter for presently after renovation.
vii. The minimum requirements as outlined in the Government’s white paper on Police Reform.
The detailed time table for the 2010 recruitment exercise as below:
1. Advertisement/submission of forms – 2nd August 2010-13th September, 2010
2. Interview/Screening of Candidates – 4th October 2010 -9th October 2010
3. Examination – 23rd October 2010
4. Marking/Swapping of answer scripts – 25th October 2010- 30th October 2010
5. Selection of candidates – 1st November 2010-5th November, 2010
6. Release of results – 15th November, 2010
7. Commencement of training – 1st December 2010
8. Duration of training program – 15 and 18 months respectively.
viii. The amendment of the enlistment form to carry the Coat of Arms, and the Commission’s name and address.
At the end of the deliberations, the Police Recruitment Board resolved that its operations would be guided by the Federal Government’s White paper on Police Reform and relevant extant rules and regulations such as the Police Service Commission (Establishment) Act of 2001, the Police Act and Regulations and the Federal Character Commission Act.

Dr. Otive Igbuzor
Chairman Police Recruitment Board