Over the past few days, controversy has rocked the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) after several policemen revealed to FIJ that the force’s administrative department demanded N10,000 from each of them to submit their civil service records for promotion consideration.
FIJ reported that during the December 2024 promotion exercise, the Force secretary’s office in Abuja sent a nationwide signal on Friday, December 6, 2024, instructing every Superintendent of Police (SP) promoted on or before August 1, 2021, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) promoted on or before December 31, 2021, and Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) confirmed on or before December 19, 2021, to forward their completed APER forms to the administrative office before that day ended.
When these policemen submitted their details, the office called them to demand ‘mail money’, a N10,000 bribe before the details would be forwarded to the appropriate quarters.
This is not the first time a policeman would complain about the process.
Bright Edafe, Public Relations Officer of the Delta State Police Command better known as ‘Brightgoldenboy’ on X, once took to the microblogging platform to complain after one such exercise.
READ MORE: Policemen Cry Out as Failure to Pay N10,000 Bribe Costs Them Promotion
On January 18, 2016, Edafe posted via his official X account @Brightgoldenboy. His post read, “Another fraudulent and dishonest promotion in the Nigeria Police. The recent promotion of Inspectors to ASP was marred with[sic] corruption.”
Edafe’s X post
At the time, Edafe was serving as an inspector in Kogi State, and his post was on policemen of his rank at the time.
Bright Edafe in Kogi State, 2015
Now a Superintendent of Police (SP), Edafe has scrubbed the post off his X account.
Similarly, in June, policemen claimed the Inspectorate Promotion Board demanded N30,000 during a promotion exercise. At the time, Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO) Muyiwa Adejobi issued a statement denying it happened.
The policemen who missed out on their promotion in December, are still yet to get any help, and Adejobi had not responded to FIJ’s request for an internal audit of the process at press time.
The post FLASHBACK: In 2016, Spokesman ‘BrightGoldenBoy’ Lamented ‘Bribes for Promotion’ in Police appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.