TheCable

The Department of State Services (DSS), says Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu, did not forge his National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate.

Since his candidacy and subsequent inauguration as governor, controversy has trailed the authenticity of Mbah’s NYSC certificate.

TheCable reported that in February, the NYSC in a letter, said the certificate being paraded by Mbah was not issued by the corps.

At the governorship tribunal session on Wednesday, Yahaya Mohammed, a DSS deputy director, who was subpoenaed to give evidence, said NYSC failed to carry out an in-depth investigation before making claims on Mbah’s certificate.

In a statement on oath filed before the tribunal, Mohammed said the DSS commenced its own investigation following a petition by Mbah dated February 8, 2023.

Mohammed said DSS found that “the failure of the NYSC to maintain a proper record keeping system was the cause of its inability to trace Peter Ndubuisi Mbah’s initial certificate”.

“It would be wrong for the NYSC to blame Peter Ndubuisi Mbah for its own failure in record keeping,” Mohammed said.

“Mbah’s file with the NYSC got missing at some point in time and NYSC started using a temporary file for him.

“For instance, in NYSC response to his application for deferment, the file number was LA/10/1532, while in their response to his remobilization application, the file number was LA/01/1532/T.

“There was a mix-up in his record as a result of the missing file.

“The difference in Mbah’s certificate number compared to others that were mobilized at the same time is due to the inability of NYSC to trace the initial file where the first certificate A678 was.”

The DSS official said from the documents presented by the corps, “12 certificate numbers (A808297-A808308) which included that of Mbah, remained unaccounted for in the eight series by the NYSC”.

He said Mbah had no need to forge his certificate since the law firm where he did his primary assignment — Udeh &Associates — issued him clearance for 11 months between 2002 and 2003.

“NYSC did not do a thorough job before concluding that the certificate Mbah presented is fake,” Mohammed said.

“The director corps certification (Ibrahim Muhammad) failed to exploit all available avenues to ensure that due diligence was done before issuing a statement on the matter.

“Against NYSC claim that ” eight series” certificates were not issued in Lagos state, upon insistence by the service for them to check their records properly, certificates in that series were discovered to have been issued to some corps members who served in Lagos state.

“The claim by Muhammad (NYSC director of corps certification) that Mbah’s supposed ‘six-series’ certificate was part of the certificates shredded/destroyed by the NYSC negates the claim that he did not serve, as it is impossible to produce the said shredded certificate for Mbah if he did not serve.”