Selection of service chiefs not based on Ethnicity or Religion- Presidency

The Presidency, on Monday, February 1, revealed the processes involved in the selection of a new Inspector-General of Police.

This clarification came as the current Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, retires Monday (today).

According to the President spokesman, Garba Shehu, the appointment of a new one would not be ethnicity or religion-based.

Shehu made this assertion on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily show, whilst stating that the security agencies have a system of producing their leaders.

He said, “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.

“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. So what do you want again?”

“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,” the Presidency statement read.