Ikem Okuhu's rhetorical question in the lacklustre and dead piece so long but unintelligible is one foolish question which ought not to have ever been asked, moreso as it concerns the highly cerebral Governor-elect of Enugu State, Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, against whom Okuhu's paymaster, Chijioke Edeoga, is generating fictions about his NYSC discharge certificate which he alleged to have been forged and the basis on which he primed his petition at the Enugu Election Tribunal, seeking Mbah's disqualification. The fact is that the Edeoga camp is fixated on a mirage in their desperation to foist Edeoga on the people of Enugu State as their governor, even when Edeoga had been rejected by the people at the March 18, 2023 Governorship Polls.
Ikem Okuhu who during the build up to the PDP primaries in which Edeoga was an aspirant had written that Edeoga would never be governor. What changed now that Okuhu would champion Edeoga's morbid ambition seeking resurrection at the court is best known to Okuhu and his pecuniary interest. Okuhu did not ask who really advised Edeoga to participate in two primaries against the Electoral Act of 2022. He would not, but Edeoga will answer to it before the tribunal. Then Edeoga would curse his godfather who caused him to take an infamous journey on a road less traveled by. The fact is that it is either that Ikem Okuhu does not appreciate the sound personality of Peter Mbah, an asset to Enugu State, or he is just being mischievious with his rhetorical question. If anything, the question should have been 'who is advising Chijioke Edeoga that he would foolishly pursue the shadow of make-believe NYSC certificate forgery against Peter Mbah? Edeoga behaves like someone whose senses had long been taken away. Or he is possessed by Ajijja about which Prof. Damian Opata had written so revealingly. How else would one describe such infantile vindictiveness and unseemly mischief of frivolous magnitude?
Peter Ndubuisi Mbah is wise and knowledgeable. He knows his onions and so handles the inquisition into his NYSC discharge certificate with equanimity and confidence, knowing full well that he has incontrovertible forensic evidence to prove that he participated in the NYSC programme and was duly discharged with the certificate about which Edeoga and co lose labour. As a sound lawyer, he approached the issue with appropriate legal processes to vindicate himself and clear his name of the smear unjustly cast on it by Edeoga, Uche Nnaji and the compromised National Youth Service Corps bedevilled by crass level of institutional corruption to the extent it would repudiate a certificate it issued to earn gratification.
Okuhu in his ignorance would not know that the case of Peter Mbah's NYSC discharge certificate had been ruled upon by the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory in a suit between the Registered Trustees of Peoples Wellbeing Association v. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah wherein the claimant sought several declarations and orders to disqualify Mbah from contesting the office of the governor of Enugu State on the basis that he presented a forged NYSC discharge certificate to INEC. Honourable Justice Binta Mohammed on March 8, 2023 had ruled thus ..."the Court is satisfied that the issue as regards exhibit B revolves around the information alleged to have been supplied to INEC by the defendant in relation to party primaries of the PDP in the 2023 general election. The Court is further satisfied that it is a pre-election matter."
The court went further to grant the following reliefs:
"A declaration is hereby made that the Defendant/Counter Claimant having met the constitutional requirements as prescribed in section 177 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (As amended) is eligible to contest for the office of the governor of Enugu State.
"A declaration is hereby made that by the combined reading of Section 29 of the Electoral Act, 2022 and Section 182 (1) of the 1999 Constitution of Nigeria (As amended) the Defendant/Counter Claimant has wholly met the qualification and requirement of eligiblity to contest the/vie for the office of the governor of Enugu State.
"An order is hereby issued that the Defendant/Counter Claimant has met the requirements for the office of the governor of Enugu State.
" An order is hereby made that the Defendant/Counter-Claimant's Exhibit E01 is valid."
The order restraining the NYSC from issuing further disclaimer on a matter already decided by the court is in order and most appropriate. No one can tell the level to which a compromised institution like the NYSC can go in its attempts to justify a disclaimer on a certificate it issued. Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. Ikem Okuhu in his zeal without knowledge rushed to press with his insipid long nothing of a piece, asking a stupid rhetorical question, and playing to the gallery, seeking to also impress Edeoga and his dead overambition. Okuhu questioned the qualification of Mbah's lawyer, Barr. Ozoani (SAN), denigrating his legal status. He went further to throw tantrums at Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court Abuja who granted the ex parte application, restraining NYSC from issuing further disclaimer on Mbah's discharge certificate. What impudence of a fry of an Okuhu,who cannot write an error-free essay as a journalist he claims to be, to mock Barr. Ozoani(SAN) and Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo whose levels he cannot attain all his miserable and accursed life!
The fact is that Peter Ndubuisi Mbah knows his onions. He is a leader who knows something about everything, to say nothing of his own profession. Peter is a sound lawyer and knows the law. He studied Law abroad and holds a masters degree in it. He is not like Edeoga who rushed through an 18-month law programme at Birmingham and came out with no idea of what law is all about. Looking at Edeoga's prayers at the tribunal, one wonders whether he has common sense at all let alone legal sense. Peter has assembled a crack team of lawyers who handles his matter at the courts. What the team does confuses the simpletons at Edeoga's camp one of which is Okuhu. They are amazed and dazed. What they do not understand, they condemn. We have yet to see such foolishness of an opponent choosing for his enemy how to handle them.It is only foolishness that would drive such a thought as expressed by Okuhu in his piece of thrash.
Peter Ndubuisi Mbah has cleared himself of the false allegation of certificate forgery and will pursue it to a logical end, to that point when all those compromised NYSC officials writing disclaimer letters are brought to book; to a point where Edeoga and his minions shall confess their iniquity of peddling damaging false allegation against the innocent. Already, Peter has filed for damages to the tune of N20 billion against the NYSC. Peter is not a dance done with snuff in palm. He will smite the mosquito and display a palm of blood, a deterrent to would-be bribe-taking officials of the NYSC and the blackmailing urchins that people the Edeoga camp.
