This is also as the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) said the political tools have been deployed by the oppositions in Enugu to wage unsubstantiated campaign of calumny against the gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Peter Mbah, describing it as a blackmail and falsehood.
Nwobodo, who spoke to journalists in his Amaechi country home was reacting to the allegation that Mbah presented a forged National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) discharge certificate for a public office job, an allegation that he denied.
Addressing journalists, Nwobodo said during his active political life, neither him nor late C.C. Onoh engaged in a campaign of calumny, stressing that they faced issues.
The former Governor said he was deeply worried when he heard about Mbah’s alleged certificate forgery.
He said, “When I heard the news, I was worried, deeply concerned. I called Peter and I said, tell me the truth. He told me that it was not true. He told me that he indeed took part in the NYSC and obtained his certificate.
“He also forwarded me pictures he snapped while he was in the NYSC orientation camp in Lagos. The entire evidence is there. I’m appealing to politicians to stop this kind of politics; we didn’t do this during our own time.”
Nwobodo, who was surrounded during the media chat by party chieftains, including the state PDP Chairman, Augustine Nnamani and the Director General, PDP Campaign Organisation, Ikeja Asogwa, urged the media to always go extra length in verifying reports before going public.
“The media should not allow itself to be used in promoting falsehood,” he added.
Meanwhile, the rights group has thrown her weight behind the counter claim by the Enugu PDP campaign council, which has denied the allegation describing it as the conjecture of an indolent opposition and the last kick of a dying horse.
The National Coordinator, HURIWA, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko called on all aspirants to political offices to stop hiring groups to constitute nuisance to the smooth exercise of the electioneering campaigns.
He lambasted the groups for attempting to blackmail the governorship candidate of the PDP in the state by contracting persons alleged to be members of a syndicate within the headquarters of the NYSC to choreograph a false narrative concerning the certificate duly issued by the NYSC to Peter Mbah, who is without any shadow of doubts, a university graduate in his own merit and who has no antecedents or associated with any certificate scam.
He said: “We challenge the groups to institute a court case if they think their deceptive and wayward allegations could stand the test of time.
“We have independently conducted our findings and determined that these interlopers identifying themselves as non governmental organisations only exists in the imagination of the faceless drivers driving the groups with the sole aim of seeking to tarnish the unassailable image of the PDP candidate for the office of Governor of Enugu State.
“By the way, the highest qualification to seek for elective offices in Nigeria is school certificate or its equipment as decided by the Supreme Court of Nigeria in the matter between His Excellency Atiku Abubakar versus President Muhammadu Buhari.”
HURIWA said that the apex court had, on Friday, November 15, 2019, held that Buhari was right not to have submitted his academic credentials to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
Adding, “The apex court stated this while giving a reason for dismissing the appeal by the PDP and its presidential candidate, Abubakar.”
HURIWA recalled that strange, amorphous and untraceable groups, alleged that the NYSC in a letter dated February 1, 2023, confirmed that it didn’t issue the said Certificate of National Service presented to INEC by Mbah just as the Coordinator of the Total Support for Rule of Law and Justice Initiative and Enugu Progressive Forum, Cynthia Mabeokwu, in the copy of the letter released to journalists at the press conference, the Corps, in paragraph 2 of the letter, said: “We are pleased to inform you that the Certificate of National Service belonging to Mba Peter Ndubuisi with Certificate Number: A808297 forwarded for verification was not issued by the NYSC.”
