A Civil Society Advocacy Group, the Enugu Good Governance Group (E-3G) has dismissed allegations of forgery of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate against the governor-elect of Enugu State, Dr Peter Mbah, describing it as the handiwork of “foolish, old story bad losers and paid smear campaigners”

While urging Enugu’s opposition to come to terms with the fact that election season and its attendant propaganda had passed and it was time to align forces for the good governance of Enugu State, the group enjoined persons and parties aggrieved over the outcome of the March 18 polls to approach the courts and the election petition tribunal.

It described the group, Total Support for the Rule of Law and Justice Initiative, as “one and the same group of faceless character assassins” hired by people it described as bad losers to smear the person of Dr Peter Mbah, delegitimise, and possibly truncate the popular mandate bestowed on him by the people of Enugu State

E-3G’s intervention was contained in a statement released by its National Coordinator, Comrade Odinaka Okechukwu, in Enugu on Wednesday.

While commending Mbah for his February petitions to the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS) and the Inspector-General of Police, the group urged the security agencies to expedite investigations into the matter with a view to bringing “all members of the syndicate of hatchet jobbers and their sponsors” to book to serve as a deterrent to others”.

“Our attention has been drawn to the renewed circulation of the same old letter claiming that the NYSC discharge certificate submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by the governor-elect of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, was forged. This is a preposterous claim and the people of Enugu State and the Nigerian public should continue to disregard it.

“Section 29 (5) limits the grounds to challenge submissions of a candidate to INEC to ‘document submitted by that candidate in relation to his constitutional requirements to contest the election’.

“Subsection 177 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) also provides that ‘A person shall be qualified for election to the office of Governor of a State if- a. he is a citizen of Nigeria by birth; b. he has attained the age of thirty-five years; c. he is a member of a political party and is sponsored by that political party; and d. he has been educated up to at least School Certificate level or its equivalent’.

“So, it makes no sense to claim that an experienced lawyer and entrepreneur like Dr. Mbah submitted a forged NYSC discharge certificate to INEC when it is not a constitutional or mandatory requirement to run for the office of the governor.

“In any case, only a court of competent jurisdiction can declare a document as forged. Therefore since the mischief makers claim they have gone to court, we wonder why they also want to be the judge in their own case rather than allow the courts to adjudicate on the matter”, the group stated.

Describing Dr. Mbah as a man of honour and integrity, who could not have attained lofty heights as an industry leader in the private sector without character, capacity, and competence, the civil society group said right-thinking Enugu people were satisfied with the clarifications made by Mbah and the documents he presented to show that he completed his mandatory one-year national service and was honourably discharged.

“The good thing is that Dr. Mbah enjoys the popular support of the people of Enugu State, who are eagerly waiting for his inauguration so he could unleash his innovative ideas to transform the socio-economic fortunes of the state

“Therefore, endless propaganda and smear campaigns by bad losers cannot truncate the mandate freely given to him by the good people of Enugu State. His mandate has come to stay”, the statement concluded.

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