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Governor-elect of Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has said he performed his one year compulsory service and was honourably discharged by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

Mbah said though he broke in his service due to his Bar studies, he later completed it and was accordingly issued with a discharge certificate.

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He said: “I did my NYSC. I served and was honourably discharged. I have my discharge certificate. My place of primary assignment was Udeh and 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, 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 honourable 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 of NYSC remobilising me to go and finish from where I stopped.

“So, when eventually I completed, the certificate I was given has 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 honourable person and all these processes were documented and my remaining months were completed and my certificate issued to me by the NYSC.”

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In the build-up to the March 18, 2023 governorship election, Mbah who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was accused by some opposition political parties of presenting a forged NYSC certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

In its reaction, the PDP Campaign Council, through its director of public communications and spokesperson, Nana Ogbodo described the allegation as the conjecture of an indolent opposition and the last kick of a dying horse.

However, responding to an application by one Mary Nneoma Elijah of Omas and Partners, demanding information on the NYSC status of Mbah and confirmation of his certificate, the NYSC denied that it issued a certificate to the governor-elect.

In the application, Elijah demanded whether Mba made himself available for the one-year compulsory National Youth Service to “our fatherland in line with Section 2(b) of the NYSC Act Cap N84 2004”.

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In its response letter dated February 1, 2023, and signed by the Director Corps Certification, Ibrahim Muhammad for the Director General of the Corps, the NYSC said: “We are pleased to inform you that the certificate of National Service belonging to Mbah Peter Ndubuisi with certificate number: A808297 forwarded for verification was not issued by the NYSC.”

“I am delighted to refer to your letter dated 23rd November 2022 on the above subject and to convey management’s delight in compliance with the provision of the NYSC Act regarding the presentation of the certificate of National Service Exemption certificate by employees/prospective employees holding Degrees and HND Certificates,” NYSC director said.

“As we look forward to close working ties with your organisation, please accept the assurances of the Director-General’s warmest regard,” he added.

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(This Day)