The Police Service Commission (PSC) on Tuesday has approved the recruitment of 925 persons who were illegally recruited into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

The affected persons were earlier removed from the final list of 10,000 successful candidates in the 2019 recruitment carried out by the NPF because they neither applied for the job nor went through the screening, aptitude test and medical examinations.

In a curious volte-face, the commission in a statement said it decided to screen and absorb the candidates “in the overall interest of the nation and considering that resources had been expended in the training of these candidates and these candidates had been exposed to weapon and weaponry.”

The commission also denied it was withholding the payment of the constables, adding that it had screened the list of “the supposedly successful candidates” sent to it by the Office of the Inspector-General of Police.

The PSC further disclosed that it has also released appointment letters to the candidates and approved their capturing into the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System for the payment of their salaries and allowances.

The commission said it had to bend backwards to accommodate the list of candidates even after the Court of Appeal gave a judgment in its favour nullifying the “hijack of the recruitment exercise by the Nigeria Police Force.”

The statement titled, ‘2019 police recruitment: PSC has cleared recruits for payment,’ was signed by the spokesman for the commission, Ikechukwu Ani.

It stated that the PSC was expected to approve their recruitment at its meeting next week after which they would receive letters of appointment.