Dismissed NSCDC official nabbed over recruitment scam
Police in Kwara State have arrested a dismissed official of the state command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) over his alleged involvement in an employment scam.
Speaking with journalists in Ilorin, the state commandant of the corps, Mr. Pedro Ideba, said Yusuf Kazeem was dismissed two months ago following investigations into petitions against him.
Ideba said Kazeem’s family had undertook to repay the amount he collected from four employment seekers and cautioned members of the public against falling victim to fraudulent employment syndicates.
The commandant said there was no current recruitment into the NSCDC.
Kazeem was alleged to have collected about N400, 000 from job seekers with a promise to get them in the security outfit.
“Two months ago, one Yusuf Kazeem was arrested, queried, interrogated and a panel was set on him and following the outcome of the panel, he was dismissed. The officer in question was reported to the national headquarters, from where it was directed that he be dismissed and the people he had duped were profiled and as a responsible organisation we are making sure that he returns their money.
“That is where we are now but the man has been dismissed. The corps has zero tolerance for corruption. As we normally say, if you take bribe you will die, we don’t condone any indiscipline in the corps.
“He collected money from four persons. He is not my staff, he has been dismissed. He was even locked up at the national headquarters for more than a month. We have retrieved our ID card from him. He has a case file here, the family has come here and given an undertaking to pay back the money as directed by the national headquarters.
“At the moment, we are not recruiting. This information we have passed to the pubic severally, that nobody should pay money to anyone, the corps has not received money to carry out recruitment, if and when we do, the public would be properly informed. So if anyone is paying money to people, that, in itself, is a criminal act,” he said.
He also revealed that six of the staff who recently engaged in sporadic shooting during a fracas with some phone vendors in Ilorin had been detained to allow for more investigation.
The affected officials were said to have shot into the air to rescue their colleague who was about to be lynched by an angry mob at the popular Computer Village following an altercation between the NSCDC official and a phone vendor.