As the Inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu, reached retirement on Monday, the Presidency has said no date has been fixed for announcement of his successor.
Presidential spokesman Garba Shehu said on a programme on Channels Television on Monday that he was not aware of any imminent announcement.
Shehu however said the appointment of the next IGP will not be based on ethnic considerations.
“The President returns to Abuja on Tuesday. He should be on his desk by Wednesday. I don’t know when he will do this.
“One thing I can assure you is that in places sensitive like that, there is no vacuum that will subsist, so therefore the system will take care of itself.
“The President will rather have an Inspector-General of Police who will make you and I safer, protect life and property than one who is more pronounced by his tribal marks.
“If you are going to appoint the service chiefs from every ethnic group in this country, you are going to have more than 250 Inspector-General of Police, 250 Chief of Army Staff, 250 Chief 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. So what do you want again?”
He said the appointment will be based on who can best help to protect lives and property across the country.

By Nicholas Kalu