DSS Berates NYSC over Hasty Investigation of Mbah’s Certificate Forgery Allegation

•Says failure to keep proper record cause of inability to trace initial certificate

Gideon Arinze in Enugu

The Department of State Services (DSS) has lashed out at the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) for claiming that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Enugu State during the 2023 general election and incumbent governor of the state, Peter Mbah, forged his NYSC discharge certificate.

The secret police also indicted NYSC over what it called shoddy and hasty investigation of the certificate matter, and frowned on NYSC’s misplacement of Mbah’s original file and opening of a temporary one for him.

In a statement on oath adopted by its representative, Yahaya Mohammed, at the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, as Mbah opened his defence yesterday, the security agency said the failure of NYSC to maintain a proper record-keeping system was the cause of its inability to trace Mbah’s initial certificate.

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.

Mohammed said the investigation revealed that there was exchange of correspondence between Mbah and NYSC at every stage of their interaction. He added that Mbah did not take any action without NYSC’s approval.

The DSS representative said, “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’s response to his application for deferment, the file number was LA/10/1532, while in their response to his remobilisation application, the file number was LA/01/1532/T.”

Mohammed also said, “That the difference in Mbah’s certificate number compared to others that were mobilised at the same time is due to the inability of NYSC to trace the initial file where the first certificate A678 was.”

He explained that from the documents presented by NYSC regarding certificate numbers, about 12 certificate numbers (A808297-A808308), which included that of Mbah, remained unaccounted for in the eight series by the NYSC.

Mohammed stated, “That the law firm, Udeh &Associates, where Mbah served, cleared him for his monthly clearance for 11 months covering January-June, 2002 and May-August, 2003 as well as his final clearance in September 2003 covering the period of his first mobilisation and re-instatement indicated that he served, hence, no need for him to forge certificate.”