The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) Director-General, Brigadier General Yusha’u Ahmed, and the agency’s Director of Corps Certification, Mohammed Ibrahim, have been asked to resign immediately by the Enugu Good Governance Group (E-3G), a civil society organization, due to misrepresentation of facts that resulted in the Governor Peter Mbah certificate scandal.
The organization also expressed concern about the rapidly increasing judgment debts that were accumulated as a result of what it described as the carelessness and incompetence of government employees.
E-3G stated that unless the heads of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) are forced to pay the price of these fines, the pattern would not change.
The organization made the requests in a statement released on Monday by Comrade Odinaka Okechukwu, its National Coordinator.
Remember that in a ruling rendered on Monday in the N20 billion lawsuit filed by Governor Mbah against the NYSC and its Director of Corps Certification for conspiracy, deceit, and willful misrepresentation of facts, Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, cleared Mbah of certificate forgery and granted him N5 million in damages against the organization.
Reacting to the Court verdict, the group said: “We congratulate the Governor of Enugu State and all lovers of democracy on this victory. The victory is not about Mbah, but about many, who have suffered or would have suffered such injustices in the future due to the ineptitude, collusion, conspiracy, politicisation, recklessness, and impunity of public institutions for selfish gains.
“It worries that NYSC admitted that it reinstated Mbah on 27th May 2003 to complete the four months remaining of his service after his Nigerian Law School programme, posted him to Udeh & Associates for his primary assignment, but claimed that they did not have record to show that he served those remaining months when, in fact, the acknowledged clearance letters to the agency by Mbah’s place of primary assignment clearly showed that this same NYSC cleared and paid him his monthly allowances for the months in contention.
“It is also a shame that NYSC lost Mbah’s file, created a temporary file in the course of his service and could not even account for a whooping 12 certificates in Mbah’s certificate series. Yet the agency wanted to put the burden of their incompetence or collusion on an innocent person. “We, therefore, call on the NYSC DG and the Director, Corps Certification to resign forthwith from the agency or be sacked.”
Going further, the group stated: “We make bold to say the excessive judgment debts incurred by MDAs due to the incompetence, recklessness, and impunity of government functionaries emanate from the fact that they do not bear the burden of the debts. “We, therefore, call for legal reforms that would put the burden of judgment fees wholly or partly on MDAs and all senior officials under whose watch such infractions occurred. It should be tied to their salaries and/or retirement benefits for life to serve as a deterrent”, the group concluded.
