The Nigerian Army has arrested six candidates in the ongoing 86 Regular Recruits Intake for falsely claiming to be indigenes of Lagos State.
Earlier on Wednesday, a viral video emerged, in it six candidates from Kaduna State cited Kosofe Local Government Area, Lagos Island Local Government Area, and Oshodi Isolo Local Government Area as their respective hometowns.
This video sparked reactions from Lagos indigenes, who expressed concerns about fairness in the recruitment process.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Maj. Gen. Onyema Nwachukwu in a statement on Wednesday confirmed their arrest.
The statement read, “The attention of the Nigerian Army has been drawn to a circulating video on social media depicting the arrest of some candidates of the ongoing 86 Regular Recruits Intake, who were caught attempting to short-change indigenous candidates of Lagos State through dubious means.
“The NA wishes to state that the arrest of the candidates was a result of the commitment of the NA to 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 to ensure only true indigenes of a particular State are recruited, using the slots of that state and 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 scrutinising the candidates’ State of origin, to ascertain the genuineness of their indigeneship claims.
“The state representative must 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.”