Enugu State Governor, Dr Peter Mbah has been cleared of allegations of certificate forgery levelled against him by the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC).
The Department of State Services (DSS) in a report tendered to the Enugu Election Petition Tribunal on Wednesday, countered the claim of NYSC that the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the 2023 general election forged his NYSC discharge certificate.
Contrary to NYSC’s claim, DSS noted that the governor’s discharge certificate was the same with other corps members in Lagos.
The agency also lampooned the NYSC of shoddy and hasty investigation.
The DSS had in a Statement on Oath adopted by its representative, Mr. Yahaya Isa Mohammed, at the ongoing Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Enugu, disclosed that the NYSC had misplaced Mbah’s original file and opened a temporary one for him, after he had returned back from Law School to complete his NYSC.
Mohammed, who is the DSS Deputy Director, Operations and Strategic Department, was subpoenaed to give evidence in defense of Mbah’s NYSC certificate.
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According to Deputy Director, DSS commenced investigation into the discharge certificate controversy following a petition to it by Dr. Mbah dated February 8, 2023.
He added that NYSC was also unable to trace to whom or which state or states of the federation 12 of its certificates, A808297 to A808308 were issued, noting that Mbah’s NYSC certificate issue arose because the NYSC had issues with maintaining a proper record keeping system.
According to Mohammed, “Mbah served for six months and went to Law School and later completed his youth service
“We discovered that Peter brought application from Law School through the Lagos State NYSC office to national headquarters
“The correspondence has a reference number: and the letter was replied permitting him to go to law school. After his Law School, he reapplied through the same means for reinstatement to complete his service
“We discovered a temporary file was used for reference. That means his initial file could not be traced.
“NYSC provided the six-series certificate which was signed and collected by corps members and the eight series
“We discovered that the numbers are in series. But NYSC could not account for 12 certificates among which includes Mbah’s certificate.”