By Charles Igbo
The Leadership of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, has been accused of partisanship by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
The Party accused the NYSC, of throwing itself into the politics of Enugu State thus becoming a willing tool in the hands of the opposition in the State.
The NYSC was engaged in a messy face-off with the Governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, who it accused of forging his NYSC discharge certificate.
A couple of days ago, a Federal High Court, Abuja Division, gave the Governor a clean bill on the Certificate forgery issue, and slammed the NYSC with a fine to the tune of five million Naira in favour of the Governor.
Slamming the NYSC, the Party demanded for a public and unreserved apology from the NYSC to the Governor for “conspiracy, deceit, and wilful misrepresentation of facts to destroy Governor Peter Mbah and dislodge the PDP from Enugu State by hook or crook”.
The party, in a statement issued by the Chairman of the Enugu State chapter of the PDP, Hon. Augustine Nnamani, in Enugu on Tuesday, said the NYSC owed Mbah the apology for the embarrassment and trauma it caused the Governor.
The PDP accused the Director-General of the NYSC, Brigadier General Yusha’u Ahmed, and Director of Corps Certification, Muhammad Ibrahim, of dragging the reputation of the NYSC in the mud by getting enmeshed in partisan politics.
The statement reads:
“The judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, not only exposed the underbelly of the profiteering, conspiracy, ineptness, political partisanship and duplicity in the Governor Mbah NYSC discharge certificate controversy, it also exposed the same factors that have rendered our public institutions weak and ineffectual.
“For instance, in discountenancing NYSC’s claim that a purported certificate number A673517 that could have been issued to Mbah was among the outdated, uncollected, unused, and cancelled discharge certificates covering 1999 to 2004 that were allegedly burnt in 2022 on Management’s directive, the court rightly wondered how the NYSC obtained the certificates dated 6th January 2003, which they certified and tendered before the court.
“In the court’s words, ‘To make matters worse, the certification by the stamp thereon was done on 19th August, 2023, long after this case was initiated on 4th May, 2023; a person can only certify a document which original he is in his possession.’
“It is also a shame that in order to perfect their paid job, cover their tracks, and fool the court, the NYSC resorted to withholding Mbah’s initial file with reference number LA/01/1532 or the temporary file with reference number LA/01/1532/T that contain his records of national service and certificate from the Court.
“The Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo, therefore, unmasked the shameful conspiracy when he held that ‘non-production of files with Ref. No. LA/01/1532 or File with Ref. No. LA/01/1532/T means the contents thereof would have gone against the Defendants (NYSC’s) in this case and I so hold’’
Nnamani: “It should worry Nigerians that it is only in 2022 when the politics of 2023 was already underway that the NYSC found it most convenient and auspicious to burn purported unclaimed and unused discharge certificates from 1999 to 2004, if indeed it did so.”
His request:
“Now that the court has finally established the truth, which is that Mbah diligently served his fatherland and was honourably discharged; that the NYSC was merely playing dirty politics and tried to fool Nigerians and the court, we demand an immediate, open and unreserved apology from the NYSC to both Governor Peter Mbah and the PDP as an institution, and indeed the entire good people of Enugu State.”
It is not known, for now, if Mbah would sue the NYSC or not.
