THE Director-General, National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), Dogara Ahmed, a brigadier-general, has said the NYSC certificate submitted by Enugu State Governor-Elect Peter Mbah to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to enable him to participate in the 2023 governorship election was not issued by the organisation.
Ahmed stated this Friday, May 19, while featuring on Arise News Television magazine programme ‘The Morning Show’.
On Wednesday, March 22, The ICIR reported that INEC declared Mbah, the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), as the winner of the March 18 governorship election in Enugu State.
He polled 160,895 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Chijioke Edeoga, of the Labour Party (LP), who scored 157,552.
In a ThisDay newspaper report on February 7, a group claimed that it found out that Mbah forged his NYSC certificate.
The group, Total Support for Rule of Law and Justice Initiative and Enugu Progressive Forum, sought his disqualification from the governorship election.
While the PDP in Enugu State denied the report, the matter has continued to drag among the contenders for the state’s most coveted office.
Mbah headed to court and sued the NYSC for N20 billion after the organisation told him he forged the certificate.
Reacting to the issue on Friday, during the interview which focused on the NYSC 50th anniversary, its successes and challenges, the NYSC Director-General said, “You can’t go and collect certificate on the street. You can’t go and collect certificate in your room. You can’t go and collect certificate in the hotel. You should know better. Please, I don’t want to talk much about this. The Governor-elect is a lawyer. I am not a lawyer, but I know as the DG NYSC, I’m aware fully of this case.
“He came to me, I called my Director of Administration, ‘let me see your certificate’. I was so frank and clear to him that the certificate is not from us. I showed him some few examples just to help him. But he chose to go to court and even to sue whoever that he’s suing.
“As far as I’m concerned, NYSC has not been sued. I’m yet to see anything from the court. All that people are saying is what I’m hearing. I’ve not received any court order. We don’t tolerate anything certificate racketeering.”
Mbah is not the first politician to face the NYSC certificate scandal in recent times.
The ICIR reported that a former Minister of Finance, Kemi Adeosun, was among President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointees who were disgraced and booted out of office because she was accused of forging her NYSC certificate.
Marcus bears the light, and he beams it everywhere. He's a good governance and decent society advocate. He's The ICIR Reporter of the Year 2022 and has been the organisation's News Editor since September 2022. Contact him via email @ [email protected].