Yusha’u Dogara Ahmed, Director General (DG) of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has said that the discharge certificate being paraded by Enugu State’s governor-elect, Peter Mbah, was not issued by the body.
Information Nigeria reports that in February, the NYSC issued a letter signed by Ibrahim Muhammad, the scheme’s Director of Certifications, saying the certificate belonging to Mbah was not issued by the corps.
In reaction, the governor-elect sued NYSC for what he described as conspiracy, deceit and misrepresentation of facts, demanding N20 billion in compensation.
Mbah also sought a declaration that the scheme and its Director of Corps Certification “conspired by fraudulent design, suppressed and misrepresented facts” in voiding his certificate of national service.
However, on Friday, Ahmed on Arise Television’s breakfast programme, said he had met with Mbah and “was frank with him, and I told him this certificate is not from us.”
“He came to me and I called my director to confirm the certificate and we discovered that the certificate was fake and I told him…I wonder how elites who have gone to school will resort to black market certificates.
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“Everyone knows how we issue our certificate in NYSC we don’t give it in hotel rooms or houses,” the DG said.
Commenting on the purported suit by Mbah, the NYSC Director General said he was not aware of any suit, and will not respond based on hearsay.
“Concerning the suit, the NYSC has not been sued. I am yet to see anything from any court, all you are saying, I have been hearing from outside. I have not received any court order, but I must tell you, we do not tolerate certificate racketeering. If it is from any of our staff, that is not our problem. But that certificate is not from us,” he asserted.
Peter Mbah’s NYSC discharge certificate has snowballed into a national issue, drawing attention to the possibility of many public office holders getting into offices with fake qualifications.
Recently, Mbah, through his lawyer, Emeka Ozoani, had obtained an order from a Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja, restraining the NYSC and any of its personnel from commenting on the controversial certificate.
In March, Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party won the Enugu governorship election with 160,895 votes while Chijioke Edeoga of the Labour Party, had 157,552 votes.
