By Garba Mohammad
Less than 24 hours after governor Murtala Nyako was impeached by the State House of Assembly fresh facts have emerged on Wednesday that his deputy Bala James Ngillari did not tender his resignation to the governor but rather was asked to write to the speaker.
Reports had earlier said that the resignation letter read on the floor of the house by then speaker, Honourable Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri who is now the acting governor of the state was obtained from Ngillari under duress .
Confirming the development, the embattled deputy governor Bala James Ngillari in a telephone interview said that the deputy speaker now the acting speaker Kwamoti Laori went and ordered him to write and tender his resignation .
In his words,’’The truth is that I have not send any letter of resignation to the governor up till now, because the deputy speaker 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.
He further that, ‘’ when the deputy speaker met and asked me to write the resignation, I wrote it to the governor but later on they came and said that I should change it and addressed it to the speaker.
When asked whether he signed the letter under duress or not Ngillari rhetorically replied that what he did was to simply send the resignation to the speaker as requested.
However the impeached governor of Adamawa state, 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.
“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 resigned 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 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. Barrister Bala James Ngillari is still the Deputy Governor of Adamawa state.
“This clarification is necessary to avert another subversion of the constitution, since the order processes relating to the impeachment saga have all been in contravention of the constitution and the law.
‘’We wish to observe that the continued abuse of the constitution and the law of the land will spell doom for our democracy” Nyako said
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