TheCable

A federal high court in Abuja has ruled that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate tendered by Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu, is authentic.

Delivering judgment on Monday, Inyang Ekwo, the presiding judge, issued an order restraining the NYSC from further refuting the authenticity of the certificate.

Ekwo 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.

The judge berated the NYSC for misrepresenting facts in its claim that it did not issue the certificate Mbah submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the last governorship election.

Ekwo also awarded N5 million in damages to Mbah against the NYSC.

MBAH CERTIFICATE SAGA

After Mbah was declared winner of the Enugu gubernatorial election in March, Chijioke Edeoga, candidate of the Labour Party (LP) who came second, filed a petition challenging the win.

In the petition, Mbah was accused of forging his NYSC certificate.

In his defence, the governor said he returned to Nigeria after graduating from the University of East London in 2000 and was admitted into the bar part 1 programme of the Nigerian Law School.

He said he was required to wait for the bar part 2 programme upon completing the first leg and was told to enroll in the one-year NYSC programme instead of wasting time sitting around.

After six months of NYSC, Mbah said he applied and was granted approval to defer the one-year mandatory programme to enable him complete the bar final exam.

He added that he later re-mobilised to finish the service, which he did complete.

However, the NYSC issued a letter signed by Ibrahim Muhammad, the scheme’s director of certifications, saying 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.