The Enugu State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council has denied the allegation of forgery of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificate levelled against Peter Mbah, its governorship candidate.
This was disclosed in a statement issued in Enugu on Monday by Nana Ogbodo, director of public communications and spokesperson of the campaign council.
“There is no truth whatsoever to the allegation,” Ogbodo said.
According to the statement, the campaign council described the allegation as the conjecture of an indolent opposition and the last kick of a dying horse.
It said the opposition in Enugu had since come to terms with the fact that they had no prospects in the 2023 governorship election and therefore resorted to smear campaigns.
The statement said: “Our attention has been drawn to a press conference by a faceless group in Abuja, which claimed to have conducted a check at the NYSC under the Freedom of Information Act 2011.
“The check allegedly showed that Mbah, our governorship candidate, submitted a forged NYSC certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission.
“We are bold to say that Mbah was duly mobilised for the one-year mandatory national youth service in Lagos in 2002, duly completed the exercise and was issued with an NYSC discharge certificate.”
The statement said the letter those behind the allegation claimed to have emanated from the NYSC “bears all the imprimaturs of forgery; the language too inelegant and unofficial to have emanated from the NYSC”.
“We have equally observed that the said malicious press statement was not signed by any official of the faceless group. We call on media organisations and interested Nigerians to approach the NYSC to confirm the veracity of the purported letter,” the statement said.
“However, we are taking steps in accordance with the provisions of the law to bring the perpetrators to book.”
According to the statement, the campaign council said that the opposition had tried their hands in other malicious and criminal falsehoods, including forgery of court processes to malign and bring down Mbah.
“Rather than present and market their manifestos to the Enugu electorate, they had earlier forged court processes and also filed frivolous and malicious lawsuits claiming that Mbah had entered into a plea of guilt and plea bargain, hence not qualified to stand for election,” it said.
“We call on the Nigerian public to disregard this latest perfidy as the umpteenth mischief by an indolent opposition and last kick of a dying horse.”
