Certificate saga: PDP demands apology from NYSC over ‘misrepresentation’ of Peter Mbah

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has demanded an apology from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) over “wilful  misrepresentation of facts” to destroy Peter Mbah, the governor of Enugu.

On Monday, a federal high court in Abuja ruled that the NYSC certificate submitted by Mbah to contest in the March 2023 governorship election is authentic.

Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, said evidence presented before the court showed that Mbah properly participated in the one-year programme from 2001 to 2003 — after seeking and receiving permission from NYSC to attend the Nigerian Law School.

Chijioke Edeoga, candidate of the Labour Party (LP), who came second in the election, filed a petition in which he accused Mbah of forging his NYSC certificate.

Ibrahim Muhammad, the MYSC director of certifications, had said that Mbah’s certificate was not issued by the corps.

Consequently, Mbah sued NYSC for what he described as “conspiracy, deceit, and misrepresentation of facts”, demanding N20 billion in compensation.

In a statement on Tuesday, Augustine Nnamani, chairman of PDP in Enugu, accused Yusha’u Ahmed, the director-general of NYSC and the scheme’s director of corps certification, of dragging the reputation of the institution in the mud by dabbling into partisan politics.

“The judgment of the federal high court, Abuja, not only exposed the underbelly of the profiteering, conspiracy, ineptness, political partisanship and duplicity in the Governor Mbah NYSC discharge certificate controversy, it also exposed the same factors that have rendered our public institutions weak and ineffectual,” the statement reads.

“For instance, in discountenancing NYSC’s claim that a purported certificate number A673517 that could have been issued to Mbah was among the outdated, uncollected, unused, and canceled discharge certificates covering 1999 to 2004 that were allegedly burnt in 2022 on management’s directive, the court rightly wondered how the NYSC obtained the certificates dated 6th January 2003, which they certified and tendered before the court.

“It is also a shame that in order to perfect their paid job, cover their tracks, and fool the court, the NYSC resorted to withholding Mbah’s initial file with reference number LA/01/1532 or the temporary file with reference number LA/01/1532/T that contain his records of national service and certificate from the court.

“Now that the court has finally established the truth, which is that Mbah diligently served his fatherland and was honourably discharged; that the NYSC was merely playing dirty politics and tried to fool Nigerians and the court, we demand an immediate, open and unreserved apology from the NYSC to both governor Peter Mbah and the PDP as an institution, and indeed the entire good people of Enugu state.”