The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State has accused the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) of dabbling into partisan politics and rendering itself a willing tool in the hands of opposition in the state.

It demanded an open and unreserved apology from the NYSC for alleged conspiracy, deceit and wilful misrepresentation of facts to destroy Governor Peter Mbah and dislodge the PDP from Enugu by “hook or crook”.

The position of the party was made known, yesterday, in a statement issued by the Chairman of the Enugu PDP, Augustine Nnamani.

Reacting to the Federal High Court in Abuja, ruling, which cleared Mbah of certificate forgery and awarded him N5 million damages, PDP accused the Director-General of NYSC, Brig-Gen. Yusha’u Ahmed, and Director of Corps Certification, Muhammad Ibrahim, of dragging the reputation of the scheme in the mud by dabbling into partisan politics.

PDP stated: “The judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja, not only exposed the underbelly of the profiteering, conspiracy, ineptness, political partisanship and duplicity in the Mbah NYSC discharge certificate controversy, it also exposed the same factors that have rendered our public institutions weak and ineffectual.

“For instance, in discountenancing NYSC’s claim that a purported certificate number A673517 that could have been issued to Mbah was among the outdated, uncollected, unused and cancelled discharge certificates covering 1999 to 2004 that were allegedly burnt in 2022 on management’s directive, the court rightly wondered how the NYSC obtained the certificates dated January 6, 2003, which they certified and tendered before the court.”

The court had said: “To make matters worse, the certification by the stamp thereon was done on August 19, 2023, long after this case was initiated on May 4, 2023; a person can only certify a document which original he is in his possession.

“It is also a shame that in order to perfect their paid job, cover their tracks and fool the court, the NYSC resorted to withholding Mbah’s initial file with reference number LA/01/1532 or the temporary file with reference number LA/01/1532/T that contains his records of national service and certificate from the court.”

Nnamani said it should worry Nigerians that it was only in 2022 when the politics of 2023 was already underway that the NYSC found it most convenient and auspicious to burn purported unclaimed and unused discharge certificates from 1999 to 2004, if indeed it did so.