A senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Mr Garba Pwul, has said that Adamawa former governor, retired Vice Adm. Murtala Nyako, has no powers in law to reject his deputy’s resignation from office.

Pwul made the statement in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday.

According to him, the law does not provide for acceptance or rejection when a letter of
resignation is tendered.

It would be recalled that Nyako had rejected his deputy’s resignation, prior to his impeachment.

Pwul said in 1965 the Supreme Court held that “when a person tenders a letter of resignation, that is the end of the relationship, no one has the power to say I reject the resignation”.

He said; “You cannot compel him to work against his will, so when the letter of resignation is received, it takes immediate effect so no one can say it was rejected or it was accepted.

“The same principle applies in employer and employee relationship; once the employee tenders his letter of resignation that is the end of the relationship.

“If there is any other matter against him, you can only go to court to enforce anything; you cannot keep him and tell him to work,” he said.

Pwul said that it did not matter where the resignation was submitted but as far as the former deputy governor had resigned, it was not negotiable according to the law.

He expressed satisfaction that Nyako and the APC had challenged the impeachment in court saying that it was a sign of the people’s believe in the judiciary.

Nyako said that Ngilari’s process of tendering his resignation letter to the assembly was a breach of Section 306 (5) of the 1999 Constitution as amended.

/NAN