- The former governor goes to jail over executive recklessness
Former Governor Bala James Ngilari of Adamawa State has set a record as the first former governor to be convicted after trial in the country. Ngilari, who was governor for only about eight months (October 1, 2014 and May 2015), was jailed five years over a N167.8million contract scam. Justice Nathan Musa of the Adamawa High Court found him guilty of 17 charges levelled against him by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Specifically, the former governor was arraigned for unlawfully awarding a contract for the supply of 25 units of Toyota Camry 2.8 to El-Yadi Motors Limited, known to him alone, in contravention of the Adamawa State Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) law. The former governor claimed that the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) at the time, Andrew Welye, knew about the contract.
The former SSG however said he became aware of the contract only when the governor told him to call the contractor because she supplied only 17 of the 25 cars. He said he told his boss that he did not have her telephone number.
The court believed him.
In the same vein, the attempt of the former governor’s counsel, Mr. Samuel Toni (SAN), to implicate the permanent secretary in the ministry of finance as the accounting officer who should be held responsible for the contract scam also failed as the court affirmed that both the SSG and permanent secretary knew nothing of it.
Perhaps the most profound lesson from this case is that it was concluded within six months. The EFCC arraigned Ngilari on September 21, 2016, and by March 6, 2017, it was all over! Incredible? But it has happened, and in Nigeria! It is a record in the trial of our politically-exposed persons. What this tells us simply is that it is possible to deal with some of these cases expeditiously when lawyers and judges are not working in cahoots to unnecessarily prolong cases that are straightforward.
Indeed, it is the expeditious trial that has made some people to comment, rather cynically, that it is because the money involved was so small that Ngilari could not hire a coterie of senior lawyers, or even have some of them elbowing one another in court to be part of his defence team. The commentators add, rather humorously, that if Ngilari wanted to eat a toad, he should have eaten a fat and juicy one!
They appear right: Even if we add the other case of N450million poll bribery funds allegedly allocated to the state by ex-Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke involving the former governor that is still with the EFCC, everything is still under one billion Naira. Nigerians in high places no longer steal such paltry amounts! It is only when they receive gifts that they get them in millions of foreign currencies! When they steal Naira, it is in billions.
That is by the way. The fact before us in this matter is that Justice Musa has opened our eyes to the possibility of early conclusion of trials of prominent Nigerians on fraud charges. We commend him for this and hope other judges will borrow a leaf from the case. It is disgraceful that while cases of prominent Nigerians involved in fraud are still at the preliminary stages in our courts, such cases would have been expeditiously disposed off in other jurisdictions.
Ngilari’s march to prison is also a lesson to our politically-exposed persons to be more careful when dealing with state matters, particularly funds, because of the Day of Judgment which came for Ngilari on March 6. While we await his appeal and the subsequent judgment on appeal, we welcome the former governor to Yola Prison (as he had no option of fine), pending when he makes up his mind on his prison of choice, courtesy of Justice Musa’s uncommon magnanimity.
