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Iheanyi Chukwudi
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), has tendered documents against Enugu State Governor, Dr. Peter Mbah, at the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal, over his alleged forged NYSC discharge certificate.
Among the documents tendered by NYSC who is the Petitioners Witness 1 (PW1) in the case filed by the Labour Party (LP) and its candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, are, the alleged forged discharge certificate, as well as the original discharge certificate which Mbah ought to have collected.
NYSC also tendered a letter written by Oma and Partners, an Abuja-based law firm, which had asked the Corps to scrutinize the discharge certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), by the Governor.
The Petitioners' lead counsel, Chief Adegboyega Awomolo (SAN), led the Petitioners Witness 1 (PW1), the Director of Certification, NYSC, Aliyu Abdul Mohammed in evidence at the resumed hearing and commencement of LP's evidence against the election of Mbah as the governor of Enugu State.
Mohammed adopted his written deposition on oath and Awomolo sought to tender the witness's deposition on oath as evidence before the tribunal. But the counsel to the third respondent, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Anthony Ani (SAN), objected to the admissibility of the document and opted to move a motion dated and filed on the July 7, 2023, which seeks to pray the tribunal to strike out the written deposition on oath of the PW1 on the ground of incompetence.
Counsel to 1st respondent, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and that of the 2nd respondent (Peter Mbah) aligned themselves with the submission of Ani and prayed the court to strike out the written deposition of Mohammed (PW1) for lack of competence.
The respondents' counsel relied on the Court of Appeal decision in the case of ANDP & anor V INEC as well as that of Damina & anor V Adamu and ors, in asking the court to strike out the written deposition on oath of the PW1.
In their responses the petitioners' lawyers relying on the case of Ararume & anor V INEC, which according to them, is a conflicting decision with the authorities cited by the respondents' counsel, asked the court to admit the written deposition on oath of the PW1.
In in a short ruling, the Tribunal admitted the document and reserved ruling on the objections raised by the respondents for final judgement.
Then the PW1, Mohammed was taken in for examination-in-chief and he told the Tribunal that he acted on a subpoena served on the Director General of the NYSC or any other official to appear before the tribunal for the purposes of giving evidence in order to clear some issues bothering on the certificate purportedly issued by the agency. The subpoena was admitted in evidence without objection from the respondents and was marked as exhibit PTC/01/06.
In paragraph three of the Petitioners' Witness's deposition on oath, the witness stated that in obedience to the subpoena by the tribunal, he came with the authentic discharge certificate of the governor, as well as the one purportedly given to him. The respondents' counsel objected to the admissibility of the documents and reserved their reasons for final written addresses.
The tribunal admitted the documents and marked them as exhibits PTC/ 01/08 a and b.
The Petitioners also fielded another witness, an Abuja-based legal practitioner, Mary Nneoma Elijah, a principal partner in the law firm of Oma and Partners, as Petitioners' Witness 2.
The Petitioners' counsel sought to tender her written deposition on oath as evidence, which was objected to by the respondents' counsel, citing the same grounds raised in the first stage but the court admitted the document and reserved the ruling during judgement.
The Tribunal also admitted as exhibit the subpoena of the tribunal dated June 21, 2023; the witness's letter to INEC, as well as the reply given by INEC; a letter addressed to the presiding justice of the Federal High Court, Lagos Division, for the production of the appointment letter dated 14 July 2003, appointing Barr. Peter Mbah as the Chief of Staff to the then governor of Enugu state, Dr. Chimaroke Nnamani in the same year he (Mbah) claimed he was serving.
After cross-examination, the matter was adjourned to Tuesday, July 11, 2023 for further hearing.
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