Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has dismissed the allegation of Edeoga/LP that Governor Peter Mbah’s NYSC discharge certificate was forged.
Tribunal holds that Dr Peter Mbah did not submit his NYSC certificate to INEC in aid of his qualification to contest for office of governor, since he was already qualified without NYSC certificate.
The tribunal rejected Edeoga’s witnesses, and ruled that the LP governorship candidate did not present any admissible evidence to prove that Mbah’s certificate was forged.
Similarly, the tribunal had also dismissed the alledged NYSC certificate forgery , non qualification and Corruption petitions filed by Chris Agu of the Peoples Redemption Party, PRP against the Governor of Enugu State , Dr. Peter Mbah.
Chairman of the Tribunal, Justice Kudirat Akano held that the petitioner failed to prove the respondent posses the minimum requirement to stand for election which is school start or its equivalent and therefore, said there’s no evidence to support the claim that Mbah isn’t qualified to stand for the election.
On the issue of Plea Bargain by Mbah, the tribunal averred that the exhibits presented by the petitioners didn’t show any Plea bargain by the respondent
The court said the evidence presented by Mbah to the effect that he was acquitted of the charges.
Ruling on the issue of forging of NYSC Certificate, the tribunal said that there was no evidence before it to support PRP’s claim that a forged certificate was submitted to INEC, adding that the issue is not contained in the petitioner’s affidavit. In particular, it stated that to prove forgery, both the original and the supposedly forged certificate ought to have been exhibite
The tribunal also held that to prove the issue of forgery, the petitioner must provide the original certificate and the forged one.
The tribunal also resolved the issue that Mbah wasn’t elected by majority of votes cast against the petitioner. It averred that witnesses called by the petitioners couldn’t specify the polling units where the elections didn’t hold nor the results of same
.Author: Maureen Ikpeama