Mohammed Adamu has held on to the office of Nigeria’s police inspector-general after President Muhammadu Buhari failed to name a replacement as he mulled over whether or not to keep the retired police chief in office.

Mr. Adamu was at the office on Tuesday in police uniform and continued to direct affairs of the police, Peoples Gazette confirmed from Force Headquarters sources. He was supposed to have proceeded on retirement on Monday after attaining 35 years in service. He was enlisted on February 1, 1986.

Mr. Adamu’s contemporaries have proceeded on retirement on Monday, but he has remained in office to prevent a leadership vacuum at the top of a crucial security department.

Multiple sources told the Gazette on Tuesday afternoon that Mr. Buhari had sent a letter to Mr. Adamu on Monday night, asking him to remain in office until he a decision would be taken about whether or not he should be replaced this week.

“The IG got a letter last night for him to continue acting until the president is back on the seat by Wednesday afternoon,” a top police source told the Gazette. “The president did not want to leave any suggestions of vacuum or illegality.”

Mr. Buhari has been in his home Daura town since last week and he is expected back in Abuja on Tuesday and to be in the office on Wednesday.

Tensions have gripped the Force Headquarters since last week ahead of Mr. Adamu’s retirement, as politics of his replacement intensified amongst top contenders.

The Gazette had in December reported Mr. Buhari’s plot to deprive a southern police officer Moses Jitoboh of assuming the position of inspector-general, which he had reserved for his co-northerners since assuming office in 2015.

The Gazette cited plots by the president to appoint Dasuki Galadanchi from Kano instead. The report said Mr. Galadanchi, who was a police commissioner at the time of the report, would be promoted to the position of AIG in order to favour him for the position of inspector-general.

Mr. Galadanchi was suddenly promoted as an AIG last week in order to make him a qualified candidate to rival Mr. Jitoboh, who is from Bayelsa.

Although only Messrs. Jitoboh and Galandachi meet the legal requirement of having four years left in service and being of the rank of AIG, some other police chiefs have been rumoured to be in contention for the police.

A police source told the Gazette on Tuesday afternoon that AIGs Umar Garba, Ali Janga, Habu Sani and Zaki Ahmed are in the race. Dan-Mallam Mohammed was the only DIG said to be in the race, although both he and the four other AIGs have less than four years to retirement, which is a ground for disqualifiction under the amended police law.