The National Youth Service Corps, or NYSC, has come under fire from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for allegedly meddling in Enugu State politics and turning into an obedient tool for the opposition.
It sought an unconditional, public apology from the NYSC for plotting, lying, and purposeful fabrication of facts in order to depose Governor Peter Mbah and force the PDP out of Enugu State by “hook or crook.”
Tuesday in Enugu, Hon. Augustine Nnamani, the Chairman of the PDP’s Enugu State chapter, released a statement outlining the party’s stance.
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The party was responding to the Federal High Court of Abuja’s ruling, which absolved Mbah of certificate fraud and granted the governor N5 million in damages.
The PDP charged that Brigadier General Yusha’u Ahmed, the NYSC’s director general, and Muhammad Ibrahim, the director of corps certification, had damaged the institution’s credibility by getting involved in party politics.
“The Federal High Court of Abuja’s ruling exposed the same elements that have made our public institutions feeble and ineffective, in addition to exposing the underlying elements of profiteering, conspiracy, incompetence, political partisanship, and duplicity in the Governor Mbah NYSC discharge certificate controversy.
“For example, the court rightly questioned how the NYSC obtained the certificates dated January 6, 2003, which they certified and tendered before the court, discounting the agency’s claim that a supposed certificate number A673517 that could have been issued to Mbah was among the obsolete, uncollected, unused, and cancelled discharge certificates covering 1999 to 2004 that were allegedly burned in 2022 on Management’s directive.
To make matters worse, the certification by the stamp thereon was completed on August 19, 2023, a long time after this lawsuit was first filed on May 4, 2023. According to the court, an individual can only certify a document whose original he is in possession of.
It is also regrettable that the NYSC resorted to hiding Mbah’s initial file, reference number LA/01/1532, or the temporary file, reference number LA/01/1532/T, which contained his court certificate and records of national service, in order to perfect their paid job, hide their tracks, and deceive the court.
“Therefore, the shameful conspiracy was exposed by the Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo when he ruled that the failure to produce the files bearing the reference number LA/01/1532 or LA/01/1532/T indicates that the contents of those files would have been against the Defendants (NYSCs) in this case, and I so hold,” Nnamani said.
Nnamani stated that Nigerians should be concerned that, if the NYSC burned alleged unclaimed and unused discharge certificates from 1999 to 2004, it was only in 2022, when the politics of 2023 were already under way, that it was seen most convenient and auspicious to do so.
The NYSC must immediately, publicly, and unconditionally apologise to Governor Peter Mbah, the PDP as a whole, and the good people of Enugu State, Nnamani concluded. “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,” Nnamani said.
