The 7 things that landed Ngilari in trouble
Being a seasoned lawyer and deputy governor for seven years, many had thought that Bala James Ngilari would have avoided the offence that threw him into jail. He became the governor of Adamawa State following the impeachment of former Governor Murtala Nyako.
As governor, he always spoke about the powers of the judiciary and how he reclaimed his mandate through the legal process.
The judiciary saved him from apparent humiliation by the state House of Assembly and elevated him to the governorship position in October 2014 to complete the remaining seven months of the tenure of former Governor Nyako, who was impeached in July over corruption allegations. The impeachment came amidst faceoff between Nyako and the then President Goodluck Jonathan.
Jonathan was accused of sponsoring the impeachment because Nyako was critical of how he handled the Boko Haram insurgency in the NorthEast, alleging a grand design to destablise the entire North for political reasons.
Two years later, a court declared the impeachment illegal but did not return him to office since the tenure had been completed by his deputy.
Ngilari was pressurised to resign from his position as deputy governor, less than 30 minutes before the impeachment of his boss, to escape sinking along with him. His resignation letter, addressed to the then speaker of the House, Umaru Fintiri, was read at the plenary.
Ngilari’s initiative saved his neck from humiliation as Nyako was immediately removed by the legislators, paving way for the speaker to be sworn in as acting governor in the absence of the deputy governor as enshrined in a relevant section of the constitution.
Familiar with legal intrigues, Ngilari headed to court, praying to be sworn in as governor, insisting that he did not resign properly. He argued that the process of his resignation was not valid as he was made to submit his letter to the speaker rather than the governor, in accordance with the law.
Nyako’s director of press, Ahmad Sajoh, quickly swore in a court affidavit to back up Ngilari’s claim that he did not resign properly.
Few days to the expiration of Fintiri’s three-month term as acting governor when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was set to conduct a by- election to elect a governor that would complete the remaining seven months of Nyako’s tenure, a court in Abuja ruled in favour of Ngilari, ordering that he should be returned as substantive governor.
The ruling scuttled the chances of Fintiri to extend his rule after becoming the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate following a political arrangement that saw influential aspirants, including Nuhu Ribadu, Senator Abubakar Halilu Girei and Ahmad Modibbo stepping down for him.
The bombshell was dropped two days to the October 2015 by-election by the then INEC chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega in Yola, during a pre-election meeting with gubernatorial candidates and other stakeholders, including the then InspectorGeneral of Police Solomon Arase.
Professor Jega suddenly cut his speech to announce that he had just received a message from INEC headquarters in Abuja concerning a court ruling. He adjourned the meeting until further notice to enable him study the details of the judgement.
Hours later, an airplane carrying Ngilari and hard copies of the ruling arrived the Yola International Airport. Subsequently, the passengers rushed to the waiting convoy of cars and headed to the Executive Chambers of the Government House, where the acting chief judge of the state, Ambrose Mamadi, was set to administer the oath of office to Ngilari.
Everything happened so fast that the acting governor was still at the governor’s official residence, just few meters away, contemplating to file an appeal when Ngilari’s convoy entered the office wing.
Having realised that his tenancy had ended, Fintiri asked his family to quickly vacate the premises.
A journalist who captured when the aides and family members of the acting governor moved bags out of the Government House had his camera smashed.
Fintiri’s resumption as speaker of the House marked the beginning of a frosty relationship between the executive and legislators. Some of them called on him to resign to ensure proper zoning of political offices among the three senatorial zones and ethnic groups in the state. Both the speaker and the governor are from Madagali.
The removal of the directorgeneral, Bureau of Public Procurement, Abba Bello Umar, after he queried a contract for the purchase of 25 official cars for commissioners, was met with resistance from the Fintiri-led Assembly, which rejected it as illegal and a proof of executive highhandedness and victimisation.
The lawmakers passed a resolution in May 2015, extolling the courage shown by Umar against illegality, threatening to call in the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to Ngilari was pressurised to resign from his position as deputy governor, less than 30 minutes before the impeachment of his boss, to escape sinking along with him. His resignation letter, addressed to the then speaker of the House, Umaru Fintiri, was read at the plenary investigate the matter.
The embattled director-general had refused to vacate the office on the claim that his removal required an investigation and indictment by the board of the agency, which would then make recommendation to the governor for his sack with the approval of the House.
Umar alleged that instead of the governor to respect the law establishing the Bureau, he caused the police to detain the embattled official before a team of policemen was drafted to take over the premises of the agency. The accountant of the Government House, Titus Solomon, was named as acting director-general.
“I am ready to testify before the EFCC if called to do so on the government contracts awarded in contravention of public procurement law and how I queried such contracts, leading to my sack, arrest and detention on the orders of the government for doing my job,” Umar said in an interview with journalists.
He noted that he had no regret for disapproving contracts that violated due process, including the purchase of 50 Hilux vans at the cost of N400 million, two bulletproof jeeps at N180 million and that of 25 official vehicles for commissioners at N167.8 million.
Following his victory in the 2015 elections, Govenror Muhammadu Jibrilla, who succeeded Ngilari, reinstated Umar as director-general through a statement issued by Mathias Yahana, the chief press secretary to the governor.
Umar gave testimony before Justice Nathan Musa of the Adamawa State High Court sitting in Yola in a corruption case filed by the EFFC against Nggilari, his secretary to the state government, Ibrahim Weyle and the commissioner for finance, Sanda Lamurde, over violation of due process in the procurement of the 25 cars costing N167.8 million while they were in office.
The judge sentenced Ngilari to five years in prison for violating the Procurement Act of the state while the two other defendants were discharged and acquitted.
However, Phineas Elisha, who served as director of public affairs to Ngilari, said the former governor was a gentleman who always insisted on compliance with due process.
Elisha said that as meticulous, humble and law-abiding as Ngilari proved to have been, he could not have breached the law if he was properly advised. He said the convicted former governor led the state at the most terrible period of its history when insurgency escalated; hence the need to act hurriedly.