Police Recruitment: HURIWA, The One Man Show, Got It Wrong

By Kelvin Adegbenga

When I saw the headline "HURIWA blasts IGP over police recruitment, tells him to respect the Constitution, Supreme Court’s judgement," I laughed because the headline should have been "Emmanuel Onwubiko blasts IGP over police recruitment."

I have been reading many statements from the so-called Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and have never seen any other person than the National Coordinator, one so-called Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) is a one-man squad that has been claiming an association. 

I wanted to ignore the so-called press release from Emmanuel Onwubiko but just want to make clarification on some misinformation he dished.

The police hierarchy, under the leadership of IGP Kayode Egbetokun, is not busy engaging in a superiority war with the Police Service Commission but rather reminding the Commission of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's mission to bring about harmony and synergy, closing technology and manpower to the Nigerian police force through a transparent recruitment exercise.

I never knew that Emmanuel Onwubiko is so aphasic and has lost sight of the fact that the Nigeria Police will bear the brunt of the recruitment of unqualified individuals into the force, therefore, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kayode Egbetokun is advocating for honesty and openness in the recruitment exercise rather than taking over the PSC's authority.

I am not surprised that Emmanuel Onwubiko will support the fraud in the recruitment exercise because the so-called Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) is just a one-man show that has not demonstrated accountability and integrity since its formation.

For the fact that the Constitution has domiciled the powers of recruitment into the Police Force in the domain of the Police Service Commission, the Commission will collect as much as N700,000 each from those who never applied and yet whose names made the final list of recruitment. 

I won't be surprised if, at the end of the day, Emmanuel Onwubiko is not involved in recruitment racketeering because of his noxious press statement blasting the IGP over police recruitment.

I call on the Economic and Financial Crime Commission to urgently look into the account of the so-called Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) and its one-man association coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko.

Kelvin Adegbenga is a freelance journalist and can be reached via @kelvinadegbenga kelvinadegbenga@yahoo.com