Court Fines NYSC N5 million For Falsely Accusing Gov Mbah For Fake Certificate
Court Fines NYSC N5 million For Falsely Accusing Gov Mbah For Fake Certificate
The Federal High Court in Abuja awarded N5 million in damages against the NYSC for falsely accusing Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State of having a fake discharge certificate.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in the judgment, held that the Director-General of the NYSC and the corps, who were defendants in the suit, were guilty of misrepresentation of material facts.
The judge held that the certificate presented to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, by Mbah was authentic and validly issued by the NYSC.
Justice Ekwo further held that evidence before the court showed that the governor, though mobilised for service in 2001, completed his service in 2003.
According to the court, Mbah, midway into his service, sought and, after receiving permission from the NYSC to attend the Nigeria Law School, was reinstated into the NYSC in 2003.
Besides, the judge said that while the NYSC did not challenge the evidence that Mbah served in the law firm of one Udeh, he criticized the corps for not charging the governor for forgery if they believed that they didn’t issue the said NYSC certificate to him.
Giving three grounds of argument, the corps said that Mbah did not appeal to the president as required by the provisions of Section 20 of the National Youth Service Corps Act, Cap N84, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 before instituting the suit against the defendants.
It argued that an appeal to the president was a condition precedent to instituting an action against the defendants in any court of law in Nigeria.
According to the NYSC, consequent upon the refusal of the plaintiff/respondent to comply with the provisions of Section 20 of the National Youth Service Corps Act, this suit is premature for the jurisdiction of the court to crystalise.
The NYSC had, on Feb. 1, written a letter signed by Mr Ibrahim Muhammed saying that the corps did not issue the NYSC certificate belonging to Mbah.
Mbah of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) was declared the winner of the Enugu state governorship election held on March 18 by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
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