‘A serious breach’ — army vows to probe ‘non-indigenes’ taking Lagos slots in recruitment

The Nigerian Army (NA) has reacted to a viral video showing some non-indigenes applying for the 86 regular recruits intake in Lagos.

In a statement on Wednesday, Onyema Nwachukwu, army spokesperson, said the “fraudulent candidates” have been arrested.

In the video, about seven men who said they were indigenes of Kaduna state were seen with fake certificates claiming to be natives of Lagos.

Reacting to the video, Nwachukwu said the video shows the army’s commitment to ensuring that only real indigenes are recruited.

“The attention of the Nigerian Army (NA) has been drawn to a circulating video on social media depicting the arrest of some fraudulent candidates of the ongoing 86 regular recruits intake, who were caught attempting to short-change indigenous candidates of Lagos state through dubious means,” the statement reads.

“The NA wishes to state that the arrest of the fraudulent candidates was a result of the commitment of the NA in upholding a transparent and credible recruitment process in line with its core values of integrity and fairness.

“The video  is a pointer to one of the processes to which the candidates were subjected, in order to ensure only true indigenes of a particular State  are recruited, using the slots of that state and not non-indigenes.

“The video in itself therefore, clearly shows that the process is transparent, as the state representative, who is a prominent member of the recruitment team has been part and parcel of the process and was given unhindered access to do her job by scrutinizing the candidates’ state of origin, to ascertain the genuineness of their indigeneship claims.

“The duty of the state representative is to identify non-indigenes amongst candidates applying for recruitment and this is applicable in other states of the federation.

“We wish to inform the general public that the fraudulent act perpetrated by the three candidates who attempted to secure vacancies designated for candidates with Lagos State indigeneship is a serious breach of our recruitment process and will not be condoned.

“We want to assure the public that a thorough investigation will be conducted to ascertain the extent of these fraudulent activities and to identify any individual(s) or unscrupulous syndicate(s) involved.

“We are dedicated to ensuring that only the most qualified and deserving candidates are selected to serve in the NA.”

He said the army would work with relevant authorities to ensure the culprits are punished, adding that they would be handed over to the appropriate agency for prosecution.

The army spokesperson urged all prospective candidates willing to enlist into the army to be honest, adding that “any attempt to manipulate the recruitment process will be met with the full force of the law”.