Barrister Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate in this month’s general election in Enugu State, is embroiled in a messy scandal.
He is accused of forging the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme discharge certificate and forwarding it to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as part of the requirement for participation in the election as a candidate.
The NYSC discharge certificate in question is dated January 6, 2003, with number A808297 showing that he participated in the NYSC scheme from 2002 to 2003.
Mr Mbah provided a sworn affidavit to INEC claiming that all the information in the documents, including the NYSC discharge certificate, is true.
But a leading nongovernmental organisation in the Southeast geopolitical zone of the country and the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, says the claim is false and criminal following a reply to their letter of inquiry they wrote to the NYSC in November 2022.
In an affidavit with No CR/27/23 dated February 6, 2023, and sworn to at the Magistrate Court of the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja, the Total Support for the Rule of Law and Justice Initiative, vehemently insists that the claim is false “because the NYSC certificate is a complete forgery”.
Speaking to newsmen in Abuja today, the NGO’s Director of Communication, Ms Cynthia Chinedu, showed a letter from the NYSC headquarters in Maitama, Abuja, disowning the document.
In a letter signed on February 1, 2023, by Abdullahi A. Muhammad, Director of Corps Certification, which is a response to the NGO’S letter of November 22, 2022, inquiring into the integrity of the discharge certificate, the NYSC wrote that “the Certificate of National Service belonging to Mbah Peter Ndubuisi with Certificate Number A808297 forwarded for verification was not issued by the NYSC”.
Consequently, the Total Support for the Rule of Law and Justice Initiative wrote to the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7, in Abuja to investigate the NYSC discharge certificate with a view to directing the Nigeria Police Force Legal Department to take necessary steps to prosecute Mr Mbah.
The Registrar of the Chief Magistrate Court 2, Wuse Zone 6, FCT, has also requested the police authorities to investigate the matter and report the results to the court.
Every attempt to get across to Mr Mbah on phone for his reaction to the allegation against him was not successful as at the time of filing this report. GMTNews
