Thursday 17 July 2014

I have not sent my resignation letter to



 Confusion enveloped Adamawa State, less
than 24 hours after governor Murtala
Nyako was impeached by the State House
of Assembly, as information emerged that
Barrister Bala James Ngillari did not resign
his appointment as the deputy governor of
the state.
Sources close to the deputy governor’s
office said the purported resignation letter
read on the floor of the House by then
speaker Hon. Fintiri, who is now the acting
governor of the state, was obtained from
Ngilari under duress.
The source disclosed to LEADERSHIP that
the drama took place when the deputy
speaker, now the acting speaker, Kwamoti
Laori, went to the deputy governor’s official
residence with an army of soldiers and
ordered Ngillari to tender his resignation
letter as directed from above.
The source added that deputy governor
had never written any letter to the
governor as demanded by the constitution
to intimate him (former Governor Murtala
Nyako) that he wanted to resign from the
office.
While confirming the development, the
embattled deputy governor said “the truth
is that I have not sent any letter of
resignation to the governor up till now,
because the representative of the House
only came to my house yesterday asking me
to tender my resignation and asked me to
address the letter to the speaker of the
House, which I did”.
When asked whether he signed the letter
under duress or not, Ngillari said what he
did was to simply send the resignation to
the speaker as requested.
The impeached governor, Murtala Nyako,
has called for the reinstatement of his
deputy as the governor of the state,
following his illegal removal.
Nyako, who spoke through his press
director in a press release made available
to journalists in Yola, said: “Our attention
has been drawn to the purported
resignation of the deputy governor of
Adamawa State, Barrister Bala James
Ngillari, which was supposedly read on the
floor of the State House of Assembly.”
Ngilari’s resignation illegal – Nyako’s
aide
However, the director of press and public
affairs to the former governor, Mallam
Ahmad Sajoh, said the resignation of the
deputy governor was illegally done as he
ought to have tendered his resignation
letter to Governor Nyako.
In a statement made available yesterday,
Sajoh said: “Our attention has been drawn
to the purported resignation of the deputy
governor of Adamawa State, Barr Bala
James Ngillari, which was supposedly read
on the floor of the State House of
Assembly. We wish to state categorically
that Section 306 (5) of the Constitution of
the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as
amended, requires that the deputy
governor resign not to the House of
Assembly but to the governor.
“As at the time the supposed resignation
was said to have been tendered in the
House, Murtala H. Nyako was the governor
of Adamawa State. No such letter was
written to him, none was received by him
and none was approved by him.
“It should therefore be known that, in the
eyes of the law, the deputy governor has
not resigned. Barr Bala James Ngillari is still
the deputy governor of Adamawa State.
This clarification is necessary to avert
another subversion of the constitution
since the other processes relating to the
impeachment saga have all been in
contravention of the constitution and the
law.”

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