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NYSC: Enugu PDP guber candidate, Mbah clears all doubts, says he served, discharged honourably

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4 years ago

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“I have never, never made a plea bargain, and I challenge anyone with a shred or modicum of evidence where I did to tender it” says Mbah

Governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Enugu State, Peter Mbah, has said he performed his one year compulsory service and was honourably discharged by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

He described as false and a campaign of calumny the report that he made a plea bargain with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), as he was not even part of the trial in question.

Making the clarifications, at the weekend, in Enugu during a phone-in radio programme, Freedom Square, Mbah said though he broke in his service due to his bar studies, he later completed it and was accordingly issued with a discharge certificate.

He said: “On the NYSC saga, I did my NYSC. I served and was honourably discharged. I have my discharge certificate. My place of primary assignment was Udeh and Co. I think the confusion was because I had a break. As an overseas graduate, when we were done with our Bar Part I, the next thing was for us to do Bar Part II, but we were just completing Bar Part 1 when the bar final students started. So, we were encouraged by the then deputy director general (DDG) of Nigerian Law School, Kole Abayomi, who was the DDG of Lagos campus where I did my Bar Part I, to go and do our youth service. So, we went to start our youth service.

“Eight months into the youth service, we were told to come back to do our Bar Final. We started the Bar Final and the honourable thing for me to do was to basically write to the NYSC to say, ‘Please, I am going to do my Bar Final and I want to break my service year’. The letter is still documented. So, I went and completed my Bar Final and went back and completed the remaining months of my service. I still have the letter of NYSC remobilising me to go and finish from where I stopped.

“So, when eventually I completed, the certificate I was given has the same date as my original set. Therefore, if you don’t have this background, you will be wondering.

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“You should be in Law School this period, why should you have an NYSC certificate? But just as I said, the documents are all there and can speak for themselves. So, I did my youth service as an honourable person and all these processes were documented and my remaining months were completed and my certificate issued to me by the NYSC.”

On the alleged plea bargain, the PDP governorship candidate said he got involved with EFCC because of the offices he held in the state at various times in the past, chief of staff and commissioner for finance, hence he volunteered to go to the commission to make some clarifications.

Mbah said: “But, what I can assure you is that when I got originally involved with this EFCC matter, there was a letter written to the state demanding for certain officers for an interrogation or interview as they referred to it then and my name wasn’t mentioned in that letter. I volunteered to go to that interview because of the office I was holding. So, it was out of my own self-volition that I went to speak to the EFCC.

“So, to cut the long story short, I have never been convicted by the EFCC and I have never engaged in any plea bargain of whatsoever kind. What happened was that even before the trial commenced in the matter in question, my name and two other people were struck out. And it wasn’t as if I was the one that applied for my name to be struck out; it was the prosecution.

“I never attended any trial for whatever charge that was brought at the time. I was never a target of the investigation or whatever allegation or suspicion at the time. They thought, at best, I was to be used, maybe as a placeholder. These are public records.

“If, indeed, the people that are peddling these rumours and fake news are interested in knowing the truth, these documents are public records. You don’t need to make any effort to find it out. And again, when you have people in a race and they do not believe in a fair contest, to them it would appear as if the will of the people can be thwarted through a court and all they rely on is to see how that can be achieved.

“I have been a victim of several malicious attacks; people engaging in politics of lies and campaign of calumny of all sorts. I want to put the record straight, I have never, never made a plea bargain, and I challenge anyone with a shred or modicum of evidence where I did to tender it. As I said, I have never been to any trial. It was the prosecution who moved that my name be struck out. So, I was never a part of any trial or any plea bargain.”

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BREAKING: Soludo, Wike, Adeleke, others appointed member of APC Presidential Campaign Council

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21 hours ago

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October 13, 2026

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Anambra Gov, Prof Chukwuma Soludo
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Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, has been appointed a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) 2027 Presidential Campaign Council list released last night.

This is despite the fact that he is the National Leader of the opposition All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA).

Similarly, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike, the National Leader of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke of the opposition Accord Party (AP), are on the expanded and all-inclusive team headed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Other members include Presidential Adviser on Policy and Coordination, Hadiza Bala Usman, former Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun, former Lagos State Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, Aviation Minister Festus Keyamo, and former House of Representatives member Patrick Obahiagbon.

Also named as members are former Osun APC governorship candidate Bola Oyebamiji, former National Legal Advisers Dr. Muiz Banire and Babatunde Ogala, Chief Ayiri Emami, Victor Giadom, Magnus Abe, and former Ogun State Governor Gbenga Daniel.

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The list, according to a report by The Nation, reflects inter-party cooperation and harmony based on the shared vision of propelling the country to the horizon of progress.

The report quoted a statement by APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, as saying that the campaign council will be inaugurated tomorrow in Abuja.

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We’re ready for 2027 polls, INEC declares, assures neutrality as PVC collection begins Friday

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6 days ago

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October 8, 2026

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…Says ‘INEC has no preferred candidate, no favoured political party’

Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, Prof. Joash Amupitan, SAN, says the Commission is fully prepared to conduct credible 2027 general elections and will remain neutral with no preferred candidate or party.

Amupitan stated this on Thursday in Lagos while delivering the keynote address at the 10th Annual Conference of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers, GOCOP, themed “2027 Elections: Trust, Transparency and Shared Responsibilities.”

He said the 2027 election cycle would begin with Presidential and National Assembly elections on Saturday, January 16, 2027, followed by Governorship and State Houses of Assembly elections on February 6, 2027, adding that with 98 days to the first poll, INEC has made extensive progress on its timetable.

According to him, INEC issued a Revised Timetable and Schedule of Activities on February 26, 2026, containing 14 critical statutory activities and is now concluding the ninth.

The timetable, he said, had been operationalised across 23 headquarters departments, 36 state offices and the FCT, and 774 local government offices covering over 176,000 polling units.

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Amupitan, represented by Lagos State Resident Electoral Commissioner, Professor Ayonami Salami, disclosed that Nigeria’s voter register had hit a historic 103 million after a three-phase Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, exercise.

Phase I, from August 25 to December 10, 2025, captured 2,611,266 new voters; Phase II, January 5 to April 17, 2026, captured 4,121,835; while Phase III, May 11 to July 26, 2026, captured 3,867,997.

He said the Commission had concluded display of the preliminary register for claims and objections and is finalising synchronisation through its Automated Biometric Identification System, ABIS, to eliminate duplicates.

The INEC chairman announced that nationwide collection of Permanent Voter Cards, PVCs, using the new Printable PVC technology, would commence on Friday, October 9, 2026, at local government and registration area centres.

He appealed to GOCOP members to use their platforms to mobilise citizens to collect their cards.

On technological preparedness, Amupitan said the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, has undergone hardware optimisation, extended battery calibration and software hardening to eliminate impersonation, while a nationwide audit and fresh procurement of devices are ongoing.

He said INEC has enhanced its result integrity architecture through the eEC8A system, which digitises polling unit result sheets, Form EC8A, at the polling unit immediately after counting, cryptographically signs and transmits it to a public portal for end-to-end visibility.

The system, he noted, was tested in recent off-cycle elections in the FCT, Ekiti and Osun.

The Commission, he added, has embedded AI auditing tools and multi-layered firewalls in partnership with Google and Microsoft to guard against cyber intrusions and Distributed Denial-of-Service attacks.

Amupitan said early procurement of non-sensitive materials has commenced and distribution to states is ongoing, while new operational pick-up vehicles have been acquired to address transportation challenges in difficult terrains, riverine and border communities. A centralised operational schedule is now tracking material movement and storage in real time.

He said INEC had instituted Zonal Readiness Assessments across the six geopolitical zones, with South-West and North-West already completed, to audit infrastructure, logistics and emergency response. He warned staff against partisanship.

“To the voter in a local ward, INEC is not the Chairman in Abuja; INEC is you,” he told field officers, stressing that under Section 26 of the Electoral Act 2026, every official must take an oath of absolute neutrality, with partisanship or carelessness attracting dismissal and prosecution.

To boost welfare, Amupitan said the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure, CEMBSS, took effect on January 1, 2026, with a 150 percent increase in state offices’ operational overheads from July 1, 2026.

He described trust as a currency earned through consistent and verifiable execution, not through pronouncements or public relations, noting that Africa’s largest democracy must set standards for West Africa at a time of disinformation, political violence and shrinking civic space.

The INEC chairman proposed a three-point pact with GOCOP for 2027: a dedicated Digital Media Fact-Verification channel for real-time confirmation of field reports; strict self-regulation by GOCOP against members publishing unverified polling unit results, altered sheets or incendiary commentary; and a strategic partnership on voter education for the PVC collection exercise.

He cautioned online publishers against clickbait economics, fake news and AI-generated deepfakes, saying unverified claims of fraud cause enduring damage to public confidence that retractions cannot repair.

Paying tribute to former GOCOP President and Publisher of The Eagle Online, the late Mr. Dotun Oladipo, Amupitan described him as a patriot and champion of ethical online publishing who helped platform INEC stories without hindrance.

“INEC has no preferred candidate, no favoured political party, and no institutional interest other than protecting the sacred and uncoerced will of the Nigerian voters,” he declared.

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INEC to politicians on 2027 polls: Your ambitions not worth blood of Nigerians

Published

1 week ago

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October 6, 2026

By

INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan SAN
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• Vows arrests, sanctions for violence, hate speech, vote-buying

•  Sets to track illegal campaign spending

•  As voter register tops 103m, 57,000 new BVAS acquired, PVC collection begins Friday

The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has warned politicians that their ambitions were not worth the blood of Nigerians, vowing arrests, sanctions and prosecution against parties, candidates and agents who resort to violence, hate speech and vote-buying during the 2027 general election.

INEC Chairman, Professor Joash Amupitan SAN, gave the warning at a strategic workshop for editors, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, in collaboration with the commission, in Abuja yesterday.

“As electioneering intensifies across the country, I must sound a clear note of warning to all political parties, candidates, and campaign managers: INEC will not stand by and allow political competition to devolve into violence, intimidation, or inflammatory rhetoric.

“Democracy thrives on the clash of ideas, not the clash of weapons or the proliferation of hate speech,” he stated.

Amupitan said the commission had put machinery in place to track offenders, adding that “through the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security, ICCES, we have activated an early-warning tracking framework to log incidents of political violence, thuggery and dangerous campaign rhetoric.

“Any political party or candidate implicated in inciting violence, disrupting rivals’ rallies or deploying armed thugs will face direct statutory sanctions and swift prosecution. No political office in this country is worth the blood of a single Nigerian.’’

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Departing from his prepared speech, the chairman said he had just been shown evidence of the kind of conduct he was warning against.

“Just before I was invited to come and speak, somebody shared with me… a person, an NDC candidate in Kano State who was campaigning yesterday with a gun in his hands, brandishing the gun, and so on and so forth.

“Another person was threatening that with AK-47s, they will kill all of us in the commission. So, that is what elections have turned into in Nigeria of today,” Amupitan lamented.

He appealed for restraint, saying “let us not forget our role as citizens of Nigeria to be patriotic because election is a periodic process for the election of leaders every four years”.

Vote-buying

On vote-buying, the chairman also announced a crackdown on money politics, stressing that the integrity of the ballot box was fatally compromised when a citizen’s vote was treated as a commodity for sale.

“The commission is taking an uncompromising stance against vote-buying in all its forms ahead of the 2027 general election,” he said.

He disclosed that the commission was working with the Federal Ministry of Justice, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit NFIU.

103m registrants

On the voter register, Amupitan said Phase I of the Continuous Voter Registration, CVR, which ran from August 25, 2025, to December 10, 2025, registered 2,611,266 voters, while Phase II, from January 5 to April 17, 2026, registered 4,121,835.

According to him, Phase III, from May 11 to July 26, 2026, registered 3,867,997, which together amount to over 10.6 million new registrants.

57,000 new BVAS

On technology, Amupitan said the commission had acquired 57,000 new Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, devices “for optimal performance.”

He said the enhanced eEC8A system digitised polling unit result sheets, authenticated them cryptographically and uploaded them directly from polling units to the INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV.

Amupitan said Form eEC8A would halt manipulation of votes at the polling unit level before the figures were entered into the BVAS and transferred to IReV.

Bulletproof vests, cars

He disclosed that at the commission’s North-West zonal engagement in Kaduna State, staff from Zamfara, Sokoto and other states asked for bulletproof vests and vehicles because of insecurity in parts of those states. He said the commission might secure bulletproof vehicles for staff in flashpoints, noting that the commission had completed physical readiness audits and staff engagements in the South-West and North-West zones, covering state office facilities, safe storage, security command protocols and logistics networks, adding that the other four geopolitical zones would follow.

Speaking on the issue of staff welfare, he said the commission had “recently introduced the Consolidated Election Management Body Salary Structure, CEMBSS, accompanied by a 150% increase in state office operational overheads effective July 1, 2026. ‘’We are working on the cash backing to ensure immediate implementation,’’ he added.

In his remarks, NGE President, Mr Eze Anaba, said the partnership was timely as the country approached another round of elections.

“Elections are not merely about casting ballots; they are about trust. They are about citizens believing that their votes will count, that the process will be transparent and that the institutions responsible for conducting elections will act fairly and professionally,” he said.

Anaba said the media had a critical role in building and sustaining that trust, noting that “as editors, we determine, to a significant extent, what information reaches the public, how it is presented and the context in which it is understood. With that responsibility comes an obligation to uphold accuracy, fairness, balance and the public interest,” he said.

He acknowledged that the media could carry the responsibility alone.

“At the same time, we recognise that the media cannot perform this responsibility effectively without credible, timely and accessible information from the electoral management body,” he said.

Anaba, who warned of the environment in which both sides operate, said:  “In an environment increasingly polluted by misinformation, disinformation, manipulated content, deepfakes and partisan narratives, the relationship between INEC and the media must therefore be one founded on openness, mutual respect and regular engagement.’’ (Vanguard)

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