Nigerian lawyers have asked the former Deputy Governor of Adamawa State, James Ngillari, to challenge his purported coerced resignation in a competent court of law.
This followed the insistence of Ngillari that he did not resign voluntarily.
Ngillari was reported to have resigned as the deputy governor of the state after his ascendant figure, Governor Murtala Nyako, was impeached for alleged malfeasance.
Rather, Ngillari verbalized the deputy Verbalizer of the state House of Assembly, Mr. Kwamoti Laori, allegedly came with a truckload of military personnel to his residence and coerced him to indite his resignation letter under duress – an action which paved way for the verbalizer to become the acting governor.
While verbalizing from his Yola residence, the former deputy governor verbalized, “The truth is that I have not sent any letter of resignation to the governor afore he was impeached.
“And up till now, I have not, because the representative of the state House of Assembly only came to my official residence on Tuesday, asking me to tender my resignation letter and address it to the verbalizer, which I did.”
However, a Lagos-predicated lawyer, Mr. Fred Agbaje, verbally expressed the resignation was unconstitutional and incongruous.
He verbalized if it were, Ngillari would have been made the acting governor.
Agbaje, therefore, urged the former deputy governor to challenge the purported coerced resignation in court.
He verbally expressed, “If the deputy governor’s allegation is true, it signifies that our democracy has become plenarily militarised. Politicians now have consummate disregard for the rule of law, which states that resignations by political office holders should not be done under the influence of force. Our politicians have learnt nothing from the military era.
“This is a solemn contravention of the constitution and it shows that there is no political independence in the administration of Adamawa State.
“Ngillari can peregrinate to court and verbally express the circumstances under which he resigned because according to the constitution, when a governor dies or is impeached, the deputy steps in.
“In law, anything that is done under duress carries no force of the law and is neither fortified by licit validity. Such an action predicated on force or duress is erroneous, contrary to all forms of licit enforceabilities.”
Agbaje, however, verbalized the incident would heighten the political tension in Adamwa State. He verbalized, “In the law and constitution, the quandary in Adamawa State has just commenced because the impeachment of the governor and the purported coerced resignation of the deputy governor have now opened up the door to a plethora of licit opportunities for the duo to challenge their abstractions.”
Another lawyer, Festus Keyamo, verbally expressed, “The next line of action for the deputy governor is to peregrinate to court to challenge his alleged coerced resignation.”
