Alleged certificate forgery: Court dismisses NYSC’s objection in Mbah’s suit

<p>A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday dismissed the preliminary objection filed by the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) against Gov. Peter Mbah of Enugu State’s N20 billion suit over alleged certificate forgery.</p>, <p>Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling, held that the preliminary objection lacked merit and ought to be dismissed. Justice Ekwo said that the provision of Section 20 of the NYSC Act, 2004 which the corps based its objection on was not applicable to Mbah since he was not a serving corps member.</p>, <p>“Again, I am minded to agree with the plaintiff (Mbah) on whom the provision of Section 20 of the NYSC Act, 2004 applies.</p>, <p>“This means that the provision has a category of persons to whom it is applicable.</p>, <p>“A keen perusal of the provision of Section 22 (1) and (2) of the Act would reveal that it sets out the person to whom the provision of Section 20 of the Act applies which is a ‘member of the service corps’ which is defined to mean a person registered as a member of the service corps.</p>, <p>” It is then stated in Section 21 (2) that for the purpose of the Act, the reference to a ‘member of the service corps’ includes, unless to the context otherwise requires or it is otherwise expressly provided, a prospective member of the service corps or any person who is a registered member.</p>, <p>“The major characteristic of the provision of Section 21 (1) and (2) of the Act, is that the draftsman puts wordings thereof in the present tense and not past tense.</p>, <p>“It makes the provision applicable to ‘a prospective member of the service corps or any person who is a registered member,’” he said.</p>, <p>Justice Ekwo held that upon studying the statement of Mbah’s claim, he found no averment or claim thereof where it was stated that the governor was either “a prospective member of the service corps or any person who is a registered member.”</p>, <p>He said it was a settled law, without prejudice to the position of the law, that “the jurisdiction of a court is determined by the subject ma