Presidency speaks on the appointment of new IGP

02 Feb Presidency speaks on the appointment of new IGP

The Presidency has reacted to the various reports on plans to appoint a new Inspector-General of Police as the incumbent Police Boss, Mohammed Adamu attained the mandatory retirement age of 60 on Monday.

The Presidential spokesperson, Garba Shehu said in an interview on Channels Television that the security agencies have a system of producing their leaders and the President will not appoint Adamu’s successor based on ethnic prejudice.

“If you are going to appoint the service chiefs from every ethnic group in this country, you are going to have more than 250 Inspectors-General of Police, 250 Chiefs of Army Staff, 250 Chiefs of Naval Staff.

“It’s not going to work like that. And they have their own systems of producing leadership.

“If we say we are going to use ethnicity or region as the basis, then we have lost it. This is about law and order, it is not about ethnic identity. This country finished with tribalism in the 1960s, why are we back to it now?

“But if you have two, three positions – look at what happened with the service chiefs just appointed: two from the South, two from the North. If you are talking about religion, two Muslims, two Christians.”

“The President will rather have an Inspector-General of Police who will make you and me safer, protect lives and property than one who is more pronounced by his tribal marks,” he said.

The outgoing Inspector-General of Police, has reached the mandatory limit of 35 years in service and intense lobbying has begun for the seat.

By law, the police chief is appointed by the president on the “advice” of the Police Council.

This Council is chaired by the president and has the 36 state governors, chairman of the Police Service Commission and the IGP as members.