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The Department of State Services (DSS), yesterday appeared in court to debunk the allegations that the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the 2023 general election and incumbent governor of the state, Dr. Peter Mbah, forged his National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate.
This information was disclosed by the service in a report delivered on Wednesday to the Enugu Election Petition Tribunal.
The DSS criticized the NYSC for what it called a hurried and incompetent inquiry that resulted in the finding that Mbah’s NYSC discharge certificate was a forgery.
Contrary to what NYSC said, the agency discovered that the certificates in Mbah’s series had been given to corps members in Lagos.
The report was rebutted by the Labour Party, who claimed that it was personal and did not come from the DSS because it lacked the service’s letterhead and stamps.
During the ongoing Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal in Enugu, the DSS released a statement regarding the oath taken by its representative, Mr. Yahaya Isa Mohammed.
He 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.
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Mohammed, who is the DSS Deputy Director, Operations and Strategic Department, was subpoenaed to give evidence in defense of Mbah’s NYSC certificate.
He noted 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, adding that the security agency commenced investigation into the discharge certificate controversy following a petition to it by Dr. Mbah dated February 8, 2023.
He added that Mbah’s NYSC certificate issue arose because the NYSC had issues with maintaining a proper record keeping system.
Mohammed said in their findings, they discovered the following:
‘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.’
However, during cross-examination, LP lead counsel, Chief Adegoke Awomolo (SAN), observed that the report presented by the DSS official did not come with the letterhead and stamps of the security agency as against the normal practice, and sought to know the reason from Mohammed, to which he responded that his signature sufficed.
Also, when asked why he did not come to the court with authorizing letter or directive by the Director General of the DSS, Mohammed, said he appeared in court because of the subpoena.
Furthermore, when the DSS official was asked why the report he presented did not have attached documents backing his statement, he also answered that they were in his office.
When he was asked if his investigation revealed that Mbah became the Chief of staff to the then governor of Enugu State, Chimaroke Nnamani between July 10, 2003 and November 2003, the same period he was supposed to be serving as corps member, Mohammed said no, adding that it was not within his purview to investigate that.
Earlier, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Wednesday, failed to present any witness to defend the allegation by candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Chijioke Edeoga, that the 2023 governorship election that produced Peter Mbah as governor was manipulated.
