Former Adamawa State Deputy Governor, Bala Ngilari, may challenge his “forced” resignation in court, going by feelers from his camp.
His grouse is that he was cornered into quitting his job by lawmakers who came to his house and insisted that he should write his resignation letter and address it to the speaker of the state House of Assembly.
Bala Ngilari
The Constitution says a letter of resignation from the deputy governor should be addressed to the governor, in this case, Murtala Nyako, who was still in office when Ngilari resigned.
Nyako was impeached by the lawmakers on Tuesday, July 15, a few hours after Ngilari resigned on the day.
Constitutionally, if Ngilari had not resigned, he would have become the governor after the sack of his boss.
However, the plot line of the lawmakers was to fire both of them and pave the way for one of their own, Speaker Umaru Fintiri, to become the state’s helmsman.
The legislators got their way, anyway. Fintiri is now acting governor, but he may not last long if Nglilari eventually wins the case in court.
Nyako and some PDP lawmakers defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) on November 26 last year. But Ngilari remained in the PDP.
When the plot to fire Nyako was being hatched, the legislators defected back to the PDP on May 20, which gave Ngilari the confidence that he was on pole position for the top post.
Sources said one of the reasons he was not allowed to occupy the office of governor is because he is a Christian.
The claim was given credence by former Federal Capital Territory Minister, Nasir El-Rufai, who wrote on facebook: “[Ngilari] was sacrificed because of his Christian faith to get rid of a hated governor.”
Adamawa has almost a balanced Christian and Muslim population.