Nigerian lawyer Fred Nzeakor has said that the administrative body National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) unnecessarily and unduly maligned the governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, because of their own failure to keep proper records and properly check their systems.
Nzeakor, said this while speaking with ARISE NEWS anchors in an interview on Friday as he addressed the tribunal upholding Mbah as the governor of Enugu state, dismissing the petitions of the People’s Redemption Party (PRP) who said that Mbah was not qualified to run as they alleged that he forged his NYSC certificate.
Governor Mbah had filed a case against the NYSC Director General, Brigadier General Yusha’u Dogara Ahmed, after the NYSC released a statement earlier in the year saying that Mbah’s certificate is not from the NYSC. In response to this statement, Nzeakor said, “The NYSC DG did not do due process, he did not do a diligent test.”
Although the NYSC had asked the court to dismiss the case, Nzeakor revealed that the case is still on as he said, “The matter is still alive. Because the prima facie evidence and the report of the SSS has shown that NYSC unnecessarily and unduly maligned Dr. Peter Mbah because of their failure to keep proper records and their failure to introspectively internally check their system very well before running to town to malign Dr. Peter Mbah. And I want to believe that when it gets to a logical conclusion, NYSC will have something to tell Nigerians in that regard.”
In response to Inibehe Effiong’s statement that the justices of the tribunal erred in their judgement upholding Mbah as the governor of Enugu state, Nzeakor said, “In my opinion, and in the opinion of most discerning lawyers, the tribunal did substantial justice to the issue. Not only there was justice, the justice was also seen to have been manifestly done.”
Nzeakor maintained that Mbah completely met all the qualifying conditions and parameters that were necessary for him to run for the election. He then spoke on the issues of forgery of NYSC certificate that was levelled against Mbah, saying that “The tribunal in its wisdom said that Form EC9, which was the form issued by INEC for you to indicate your qualification, write them down, Dr. Peter Mbah did not attach his NYSC certificate because, of course, it was not a condition precedent for him to run.”
Nzeakor then argued, “Now, it beats my imagination, where did the petitioner get the NYSC certificate that they were claiming was faulty? Now, the only natural place they could have got it, because of course, if it was not in INEC, the only natural place they would have got it was from NYSC itself, and of course, in evidence act, if you are bringing any document, documentary evidence, it must come from the proper sector, from proper establishment… they would have gone to NYSC. And if they went to NYSC to get the certified true copy of that certificate, where was the original? That means NYSC had the original certificate of that number A808297, which only bears the name of Dr. Peter Mbah.
“The second aspect that you will look at is, if that certificate was said to be forged, where is the original? So, I agree completely with the learned judges of the tribunal that for you to prove forgery of a document, there are two major ingredients as decided by the supreme court. One, it’s either you have cloned an original certificate, in which case, there is a cloning of the original, which now makes the other cloned copy a fake one. Or, there is an adulteration of the content of the original, which makes it an issue of alteration. So, if there is no cloning and there is no alteration, then where now lies the issue of forgery?”
Nzeakor then said, “The people of Enugu state are agitated. They want to know, have we elected a governor that is a fraudulent man? Or have we elected a man that will lead us? I’m here because of the people of Enugu state, I’m not here to talk in favour of anybody, because the people are worried and I want to tell the people that they elected a governor that will lead them because their governor has committed no offense in the eye of the law, and that they should cooperate with the governor to move Enugu state forward.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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