What we saw at the Enugu State Governorship Tribunal on Friday, 15th July was desperation taken too far by Chijioke Edeoga and his Labour Party, LP.
When the news of the supposed NYSC certificate forgery broke in February, many expected the then candidate of the PDP and now the governor of Enugu State, Dr. Peter Mbah, to take forcefully to the media to debunk it and push back. His political opponents mistook it for admission of guilt and came out forcefully to pursue him on an alley, which only he knew was a dead end ab initio. Smart guy.
Though the Mbah NYSC certificate brouhaha was plotted by the APC governorship candidate and his Douglas House ally in Imo State to have Mbah disqualified to pave way for him, LP, their governorship candidate, Chijioke Edeoga, and lawyers, fell foolhardily for Mbah’s trick and went on a wild goose chase . They built virtually all their hopes and case on Mbah’s supposedly forged NYSC certificate.
Suddenly, the noise about how LP was allegedly rigged out of the gubernatorial election disappeared. INEC’s IREV also effectively put paid to their lies about Nkanu East. It was, in fact, demonstrated that Mbah was instead deprived of a whooping 1,072 votes due to miscalculations. So, it has been all about Mbah’s NYSC and his supposed non-qualification to vie for the governorship position. Even the court order granted the LP way back on 29th March (ten days after the election) to inspect the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used for the election was abandoned.
They focused on Mbah’s NYSC certificate as though their whole life depended on it.
It was not until after the appearance and testimony of the NYSC Director of Corps Certification, Ibrahim Muhammad, at the tribunal that their eyes cleared. The outing by Muhammad, who has been issuing Edeoga and his lawyers with the disclaimer with which they entertained their gullible followers and reassure the ‘investors”/‘magas’ funding Edeoga’s newfound flamboyant lifestyle, was an anti-climax.
Contrary to the needless hype LP’s propagandists fed to the public on NYSC’s appearance, Muhammad’s/NYSC’s Statement on Oath and testimony, besides being replete with self-contradictions, were essentially in agreement with Mbah’s submissions and all what he has been telling the public about his discharge certificate.
In his evidence, Muhammad, averred: “That Mr. Mbah Peter Ndubuisi was actually mobilised and deployed to Lagos State by the NYSC for the compulsory national service vide a call-up letter dated 7th January, 2002, with Serial No. 0134613 and Reference No. NYSC/FRN/2001/890351.
“That the NYSC Office in Lagos reposted him to the Law Firm of Udeh & Associates, Lagos.
“That by letter dated 20th June, 2002, Mbah Peter Ndubuisi applied to the Director-General of the NYSC for deferment of his service, to enable him attend the Nigerian Law School.
“That after completion of his Law School Programme, Mbah Peter Ndubuisi applied to the DG of NYSC vide letter dated 03/4/2003 for re-mobilisation for national service, to enable him complete his NYSC programme.
“That by letter referenced NYSC/DHQ/CM/M/27/20, dated 7th May, 2003, the DG NYSC wrote to the Lagos Director of the NYSC to reinstate Mbah Peter Ndubuisi to continue his service year from where he had stopped, with effect from May, 2003,to terminate in September, 2003.
“That upon return, Mbah Peter Ndubuisi was posted to the Law Firm of Udeh & Associates, Lagos again, for completion of his primary assignment, with probable date of discharge on 15th September, 2003”.
They only deferred with Mbah at paragraph 14 (i) where they stated that “there was no record of the completion of Mbah Peter Ndubuisi’s primary assignment, because he stopped attending the compulsory weekly community service in Lagos, which is one of the cardinal programmes of the NYSC”.
But that is not a problem, Udeh and Associates, a law firm where Mbah did his primary assignment already tendered the clearance letters they issued to Mbah for the payment of his allowance for those four months. What is more, Mbah submitted to the tribunal evidence of payments of his monthly allowance by the NYSC until the end of his service. Case closed.
So, it is not surprising that just a few days after it became obvious to everyone that their sponsored and baseless case of NYSC certificate has collapsed, the petitioners, Edeoga and his Labourers, have diverted attention to BVAS to see if they could rescue their nuts from the fire.
In fact, they are now confused with the Petition they filed. At the Friday’s hearing, their lawyers lamented that they didn’t know what to do with their case without access to BVAS machine whereas all serious petitioners across the country had since concluded inspection of election materials long ago. But remember, the court granted LP leave since 29th March to inspect BVAS, but they chose to pocket it, banking on NYSC to upturn Mbah’s victory. Now, “yawaa don gas”.
They also want more time to sort out their BVAS inspection mess. LP’s wicked and useless application to commit Enugu REC for contempt of court for alleged failure to allow them inspect BVAS machine was refused by the Tribunal on the ground of fair hearing. The tribunal insisted they should serve the REC with whatever application they had to enable the REC to respond and that the issue of contempt was premature because there is nothing before the court showing the alleged contempt.
Recall that while the court order clearly states that LP should inspect the BVAS, other 14 political parties alleged that LP wanted to tamper with the machines when INEC brought them out for inspection on Thursday. They wanted to operate it by themselves rather than allow INEC staff to handle it for them to see what was in it. Other parties feared that LP’s external ‘expert’ might doctor the content of the BVAS machines.
It is noteworthy that the constitution set a timeframe for tribunals to conclude election disputes. That is why they sit on Saturdays and Sundays across the nation to be able to meet up. So, Enugu LP’s allotted weeks will end on Sunday 16th July.
But at the Friday hearing, they tried pressuring the tribunal into adjourning their case to Tuesday 18th July, thereby extending the closure of their case by two days.
However, the court refused, insisting that adjournment must be day-to-day and that they must be present in court on Saturday and Sunday with their witnesses. It was at this point that LP supporters started shouting and disrupted proceedings in court, which made the tribunal to rise so as to allow them to make noise to their satisfaction and equally calm themselves after the therapy. It took the intervention of police to calm the situation. The judges returned and adjourned the case to Saturday 15th July after police had also intervened to calm their worried nerves and restored order.
The option is now left for Labour Party to suspend their petition to start pursuing REC or concentrate on their petition of which they are bound to fail in any of the two options available to them at the moment.
Lest one forgets, has anyone observed the pictures of Edeoga parading himself at the tribunal every morning as if he owns the tribunal no longer flies around? Reality is now dawning on him.
Three days ago, his police orderly, out of frustration, cocked his gun and threatened to shoot a lawyer, Matthew Eze, Esq. Then, yesterday, his supporters mobilised to disrupt courts proceedings– out of frustrations. E don red.
I fear who no fear Mbah. He strategically misled Edeoga and his band of charlatans by allowing them to feast on the NYSC saga, knowing that nothing would come out of it, as his certificate is genuine. See businessman sense.
