Lt. Colonel Abu Ali was Governor of Bauchi State

Bauchi State

Bauchi State is a State in northern Nigeria. Its capital is the city of Bauchi. The state was formed in 1976 when the former North-Eastern State was broken up...

, Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...

 from August 1990 to July 1992 during the military regime of Major General Ibrahim Babangida

Ibrahim Babangida

General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida CFR DSS mni , popularly known as IBB, was a Nigerian Army officer and military ruler of Nigeria...

.

As governor of Bauchi State he commissioned the Bauchi Township Water project, formed the Wikki Tourists Football Team, consolidated the Tomato Processing Company project and completed some hospital projects.
In 1991 there were riots in Tafawa Balewa, where Christians and Muslims disputed a shared abattoir. The trouble spread to Bauchi

Bauchi

Bauchi is a city in northeast Nigeria, the capital of Bauchi State, of the Bauchi Local Government Area within that State, and of the traditional Bauchi Emirate. The city has a population of 316,173...

and other towns. After some delay, Abu Ali imposed a dusk to dawn curfew, banned all public gatherings and deployed police and soldiers in all troubled areas to keep the peace. In all, perhaps 1,000 people died.

He handed over to a democratically elected government in January 1992.