NYSC Certificate Forgery: Tribunal Refuses to Throw Out Petition against Enugu Governor

Patrick OdeyJune 10, 2023

2 minutes read

The Enugu State Election Petition Tribunal has turned down a request by lawyers of Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State to dismiss a petition seeking to disqualify him over the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate forgery scandal.

The petition was filed by the candidate of the Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) in the March 18 election, Chief Chris Agu, who challenged Mbah’s eligibility to contest the election.

Agu alleged that Mbah submitted a forged NYSC certificate to INEC before the election. Agu also asked the tribunal to declare him the winner of the election on the ground that he won the majority of valid votes during the election.

The chairman of the tribunal, Kudirat Akano, after hearing arguments from both sides, ruled that the motion to strike out the case was premature, insisting that certificate forgery was a serious matter.

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She also ruled that any counter or objection against the petition should be done at the end of the trial, when the tribunal will give its final judgement on the validity or otherwise of their claim.

Speaking after the session on Friday, counsel to Chief Agu, Barr Alex Amujiogu said that they have exchanged their pretrial forms but revealed that there were some documents which were yet to be viewed by both counsels.

He said, “We also proposed in our individual capacity on how we intend the lawyers to go on to pursue the case so that at the end of the day, the tribunal will issue a pretrial report on how the parties are to present and conclude their cases. So the only issue that is now left in the pretrial is that there are some documents which were alluded to by the respondents which have not been front-loaded.

“So the tribunal in its wisdom is asking that the counsels should meet and ensure that all necessary documents which need to be tendered at the trial are in the purview of fellow counsels. The tribunal adjourned the matter to June 14 to conclude pretrial and to enable the tribunal to issue a report or a guideline on how the trial will commence.”

Mbah is a Nigerian maritime lawyer, financial analyst, and politician who has served as governor of Enugu State since May 29, 2023. He is the founder and chief executive officer of Pinnacle Oil and Gas Ltd. He was elected for governor in March 2023 under the platform of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). His participation in the National Youth Service Corps has been disputed as the NYSC has stated that the NYSC certificate he is parading is fake.