Police websites crash as recruitment exercise starts

The Nigeria police’s commencement of its nationwide recruitment exercise ended up in disappointment for many Nigerians who flooded their official website. The Nigerian security outfit had announced openings for about 10,000 Nigerians and on the first day of the exercise alone, about 8,000 individuals had registered, leading a sudden crash of the website on Friday, April 1. 

According to The Punch findings, other candidates who attempted to apply for enlistment into the Nigeria Police Force were frustrated as the two portals set aside for registration were not accessible for most parts of the day. Reports say the Police Service Commission had directed applicants to visit www.psc.gov.ng or www.npf.gov.ng for registration, but both sites crashed due to huge traffic.

“Candidates started registering online from 4am on Friday when the portals opened for registration; as of 2pm, over 8,000 candidates had registered online. The traffic was huge and this explains why many applicants could not access the websites because the servers were down,” a police source explained. 

An operator at the Smart and Bright cafe, Kubwa, who simply identified himself as Kingsley, said he had to turn back many candidates because the recruitment portals were not accessible, adding that only few candidates were able to register. 

In the same vein, Victor Igaman who operates Igaman Cafe, explained how he turned back about four candidates on account of the jammed police servers while seven applicants were successful at the Christ link cafe. Ikechukwu Ani, the head of the police commission, informed that their technical team was working on the servers to ensure they get back on. He said: 

“I have notified our technical team and they are working on the servers, all the hiccups would be addressed and candidates would find it easier to file their applications. 

I believe the issues we are experiencing were caused by the traffic from the huge number of applicants.” NAIJ.com’s checks on the websites as at 12.45pm on Saturday, 2 April, also showed that both sites had stopped working. 

Meanwhile, President Muhammadu Buhari has explained that the reason for recruiting 10,000 police officers was to reduce the level of unemployment in the society. President Buhari who was represented by Abdulrahman Dambazau, Nigeria’s minister of interior said this on Friday, April 1 at a ceremonial parade to mark the 2016 Police Week in Abuja.