If I see N1bn now, I will faint – Former Adamawa Governor, Bala Ngilari speaks on corruption allegations

Barrister Bala Ngilari, the ex-governor of Adamawa State, recently shared his thoughts on what his response would be upon obtaining one billion Naira.

Ngilari, who served a brief term as the Governor of the North-Eastern state from October 2014 to May 2015, had faced a corruption conviction related to 166 million Naira after leaving office, leading to his imprisonment.

In an interview with Daily Trust, Ngilari addressed the corruption allegations against him and clarified that there were no ongoing legal proceedings accusing him of embezzlement.

When asked if he had “like N1bn of your own?”, he replied, “If I see N1bn now, I will faint.” He added; 

“In fact, the good thing is that the greatest difficulty for a person who tries to be honest and righteous is that you gather so many enemies. Till tomorrow, I say it boldly without fear or favour, if you take the proceedings of the courts that arraigned me on a five-count charge, there is not one count of the five that said I took one naira or diverted one naira, not one.”

”In fact, I tried to contest for the Senate too under APC. I went round, toured and two, three days to the primary election, I called and reached out to the delegates through my director general and my coordinators.

“The delegates told me, ‘Look, sir, when it comes to the right person to go for this thing, you are the right person, but honestly we will be sincere and honest with you we cannot accept N100,000 which you want to offer us.’

“To help. My idea was that I could offer N100,000 for probably 200 people. That would come to about N20 million, so that they could go and start something at home.

“I mean N100,000 at that time was something. (But) they said, ‘No, sir, we will not collect your N100,000 because there are people who are willing to give us one N1 million each.’”