IN SHORT: A “special recruitment list” purportedly published by the Nigeria Police Service Commission of successful recruits is fake. The commission has asked the public to disregard it.
A message circulating on Facebook in December 2023 claims that Nigeria’s Police Service Commission (PSC) has published a “2023 recruitment special list”.
As an oversight body, the PSC manages the interaction between the police and the public.
The message reads: “Shortlist of the 2023 Nigeria Police recruitment Special List has been released.” It contains hundreds of names, along with their state and national identity numbers.
A screenshot of the “special list” also appeared on Facebook here, here, here, here, here and here. Other users only posted that the “2023 police special recruitment list is out”.
The inclusion of identity numbers could be a cause of panic as these are confidential.
But is this a legitimate list? We checked.
‘Fictitious publication’
Various fraudulent posts on Facebook have previously targeted the Nigerian police.
On 21 November 2023, we fact-checked a post claiming that the police had published a set of travel safety tips. This was false.
On 13 December, the commission disowned the “special” list in a statement, describing it as “fictitious”.
“The publication for all intents and purposes is obviously planted to confuse and further defraud Nigerian youths who must have genuinely applied for consideration for recruitment into the Constable cadre of the Nigeria Police Force,” it said.
It added that it would “soon announce a detailed programme for the concluding part of the recruitment exercise which will include dates for physical and document screening of candidates; [a] computer-based test to be conducted by a reputable government examination body and medical tests”.
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