LP, PRP to tribunal: Order Mbah to appear over alleged certificate forgery

Both the Labour Party, LP, and the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP, have asked the Enugu state Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal to compel Governor Peter Mbah to appear before the tribunal to answer charges of alleged falsification of National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, certificate, the Governor tendered to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC. At the resumed hearings of the Petitions by both political parties, on Thursday, counsels to the Labour Party, raised for motion interrogatories, seeking answers from the second respondent, which is Governor Peter Mbah. Some of the questions being raised by the LP to Mbah which the petitioners want to answer are: when and where did he serve? When was he appointed as Chief of Staff, the date? When was he made commissioner for finance in Enugu State? We want to know the duration he served.

The LP wants Mbah to produce before the Tribunal, the letter of appointment as Chief of Staff, the letter of appointment as commissioner for finance under Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani, and the institutions he said he attended; we want to have the documents showing that he attended those institutions.

The tribunal will deliver a ruling on whether Mbah will appear before it to answer the LP questions on Saturday 24th of June.

But the Tribunal ordered Governor Mbah to appear before it on Friday, June 24 following an application made by the PRP through its counsel, Ozor Alex Amujiogu.

Governorship Candidates of the LP and PRP, Hon. Chijioke Edeoga and Elder Christopher Agu, respectively, were in court.

Agu is seeking to upturn the declaration of Barr Peter Mbah as the winner of the March 18 governorship election and is also claiming that Mbah was not qualified to contest the election, having allegedly forged his National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, discharge certificate and also for not obtaining the highest number of votes in the state to be declared the winner.

Amujiogu told the tribunal that Mbah was supposed to be in court as a subpoenaed witness. He, however, said from the affidavit deposed to by the bailiff of the Tribunal, it had been difficult to serve Mbah the summon.

Amujiogu then moved an application, urging the Tribunal to grant a substituted service of the summon on Mbah through his counsel. Although the application was opposed by the three respondents, the INEC, Mbah as well as the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, because it was supposed to come by way of motion, supported by an affidavit during the pre-trial session, they were overruled by the Tribunal.

Chairman of the Panel, Justice K. M. Akano ordered that the subpoena be served on Mbah through his counsel and that he should appear before the Tribunal on June 23.

Earlier, the PRP guber candidate during the election, Agu, had also testified before the Tribunal as PW2.

An official of the NYSC from the National Secretariat, Abuja, Barr. Aliu Muhammed, who also appeared on behalf of the Director-General of the Corps, tendered an affidavit to the Tribunal, declaring that an order of a Federal High Abuja, was inhibiting them from tendering the disclaimer the Corps made against Mbah’s certificate.

The PRP lawyer, Amujiogu told newsmen after the Tribunal’s sitting that “our PW2 (Christopher Agu) has already testified before the Honourable Tribunal and he has given a clearer picture, the synopsis of what transpired during the election and we are urging the Tribunal to set aside the purported result in favour of Peter Mbah, the Governor.

“We had an issue of a subpoena against Barr Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, in which the Tribunal is urging him to appear before it to clarify certain issues against him, based on his NYSC certificate and other matters.

“Surprisingly, he was not in the Tribunal today and the bailiff informed the Tribunal that he is invading service, he cannot find him, and the security cannot allow him to serve Mbah the subpoena.

“Then, the Tribunal in its own wisdom, after I have applied, has now permitted the bailiff or myself, to now serve Mbah through his counsel, for him to appear before the Tribunal tomorrow, being 23rd of June, 2023 and clarify certain issues against him before the Tribunal and we have already served him the said subpoena through his lawyer, Ik Onuoma today in court.

“So he must obey the summon of the Tribunal by appearing in person tomorrow, Friday.” Vanguard