The Department of State Security (DSS) has dismissed claims by the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) that the Governor of Enugu State and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the March 18 governorship election, Peter Mbah, forged his NYSC discharge certificate.
The DSS made its position known in a written statement on oath adopted by its representative, Yahaya Isa Mohammed, at the ongoing Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal as Mbah called two witnesses to open his defence on Wednesday.
Giving evidence, the subpoenaed DSS Deputy Director, Operations and Strategic Department said the security agency commenced an investigation into the discharge certificate controversy, following a petition to it by Mbah dated February 8, 2023.
The DSS said the certificates in a series that included Mbah’s were found to have been issued to Corps members in Lagos, contrary to the NYSC’s claim.
It frowned on the NYSC’s misplacement of Mbah’s original file and opened a temporary one for him, noting that the Corps was also unable to trace to whom or which state or states of the federation 12 of its certificates, A808297 to A808308, were issued.
The security agency said, “The failure of the NYSC to maintain a proper record-keeping system was the cause of its inability to trace Peter Ndubuisi Mbah’s initial certificate”, adding “It would be wrong for the NYSC to blame Peter Ndubuisi Mbah for its own failure in record keeping”.
Mohammed said the investigation revealed: “That there were exchanges of correspondences between Mbah and the NYSC at every stage of their interactions. Mbah did not take any action without the NYSC’s approval.
Mohammed said the investigation revealed: “That there were exchanges of correspondences between Mbah and the NYSC at every stage of their interactions. Mbah did not take any action without the NYSC’s approval.
“That Mbah’s file with the NYSC got missing at some point in time and NYSC started using a temporary file for him. For instance, in NYSC response to his application for deferment, the file number was LA/10/1532, while in their response to his remobilization application, the file number was LA/01/1532/T.
“That there was a mix-up in his record as a result of the missing file.
“That the difference in Mbah’s certificate number compared to others that were mobilized at the same time, is due to the inability of NYSC to trace the initial file where the first certificate A678 was.”
According to him, “from the documents presented by NYSC regarding certificate numbers, about twelve (12) certificate numbers (A808297-A808308) which include that of Mbah, remained unaccounted for in the eight (8) series by the NYSC.”
