By CHARLES IWUOHA

A group, Total support for the Rule of Law and Justice Initiative, has petitioned President Muhammadu Buhari to thoroughly investigate the alleged certificate forgery leveled against the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Enugu State governorship candidate, Mr Peter Mbah.

Mbah is facing allegations that the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate he presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) was forged.

He had personally denied the allegation, describing it as total falsehood.

In a strongly worded letter to President Muhammadu Buhari, the group is calling on NYSC to verify the discharged certificate No A808297 in line with an existing court order.

The group alleged that a letter from the NYSC in response to an inquiry from one Messrs Omas & Partners, a legal firm, indicated that the certificate in Mbah’s possession did not emanate from the Corps.

“The National Youth Service Corps, in their letter to Messrs. Omas & Partners dated 1st February, 2023 and signed by Ibrahim A. Muhammad, Director Corps Certification stated thus: ‘We are pleased to inform you that the Certificate of National Youth Service Corps belonging to Mbah Peter Ndubuisi with Certificate Number: A808297 forwarded for verification was not issued by the NYSC.

“We also have it on good authority that Mr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah has been mounting pressure on the management of NYSC, using some persons in the presidency to issue a statement to the effect that its reply dated 1st day of February, 2023 was made in error.

“It is important to state here that the said Peter Ndubuisi Mbah who claimed to have remobilized or granted permission to continue his NYSC in May 2003 was appointed Chief of Staff to the then Governor of Enugu State, His Excellency Chimaroke Nnamani and was later appointed commissioner for finance, a position he held until the end of the government of Senator Chimaroke Nnamani in 2007.

“The question that will agitate the mind of every reasonable person is “whether Mr. Peter Mbah has a dual personality, one serving in 2003 in Lagos State as a Corps member and the other in the Enugu State Government House as the Chief of Staff within the same period,” the group told President Buhari in the letter.

It said the above developments prompted it to approach a Magistrate Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, which has already directed the Assistant Inspector General of Police, Zone 7, Police headquarters to cause an investigation to be carried out in respect of its complaints.

The group requested the President to mandate the police to carry out the said investigation without any fear or favour “in ensuring that the right things are done and that those found culpable would be made to face justice.

“That you use your good offices to ensure that the National Youth Service Corps does not compromise in the circumstance.

“That those found culpable be brought to justice.”

Recall that Mbah had last week during a radio programme in Enugu described the allegation as cheap blackmail.

He told his story thus: “I did my NYSC. I served and was honorably discharged. I have my discharge certificate. My place of primary assignment was Udeh & Co. I think the confusion was because I had a break. As an overseas graduate, when we were done with our Bar Part I, the next thing was for us to do Bar Part II, but we were just completing Bar Part 1 when the bar final students started.

“So we were encouraged by the then Deputy Director-General (DDG) of Nigerian Law School, Prof. Kole Abayomi, who was the DDG of Lagos Campus where I did my Bar Part I to go and do our youth service. So, we went to start our youth service.

“Eight months into the youth service, we were told to come back to do our Bar Final. We started the Bar Final and the honorable thing for me to do was to basically write to the NYSC to say, ‘Please, I am going to do my Bar Final and I want to break my service year”. The letter is still documented. So, I went and completed my Bar Final and went back and completed the remaining months of my service.

“I still have the letter from NYSC re-mobilizing me to go and finish from where I stopped. So, when I eventually completed it, the certificate I was given had the same date as my original set. Therefore, if you don’t have this background, you will be wondering, ‘You should be in Law School this period, why should you have an NYSC certificate?’

“But just as I said, the documents are all there and can speak for themselves. So, I did my youth service as an honorable person and all these processes were documented and my remaining months were completed and my certificate was issued to me by the NYSC,” he disclosed.

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