…Wants legal reforms to place burden of judgment debt on ‘errant’ CEOs
A civil society organisation, the Enugu Good Governance Group (E-3G), has asked the Director-General of the National Youth Service Corps, NYSC, Brigadier General Yusha’u Ahmed, and the Director, Corps Certification of the agency, Mohamad Ibrahim, to immediately resign for ineptitude, conspiracy, and malicious misrepresentation of facts that led to the Governor Peter Mbah certificate saga.
The group also raised the alarm over the skyrocketing judgement debts incurred due to what it termed the recklessness and ineptitude of government functionaries.
E-3G said the trend would continue until heads of ministries, departments, and agencies (MDAs) are made to bear the cost of such penalties.
The group made the calls in a statement issued by its National Coordinator, Comrade Odinaka Okechukwu, on Monday.
Recall that Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, had in a judgment delivered on Monday in the N20 billion lawsuit instituted by Governor Mbah against the NYSC and its Director of Corps Certification over conspiracy, deceit, and willful misrepresentation of facts, absolved Mbah of certificate forgery and awarded N5 million damages to him against the agency.
Reacting to the Court verdict, the group said: “We congratulate the Governor of Enugu State and all lovers of democracy on this victory. The victory is not about Mbah, but about many, who have suffered or would have suffered such injustices in the future due to the ineptitude, collusion, conspiracy, politicisation, recklessness, and impunity of public institutions for selfish gains.
“It worries that NYSC, admitted that it reinstated Mbah on 27th May 2003 to complete the four months remaining of his service after his Nigerian Law School programme, posted him to Udeh & Associates for his primary assignment, but claimed that they did not have record to show that he served those remaining months when, in fact, the acknowledged clearance letters to the agency by Mbah’s place of primary assignment clearly showed that this same NYSC cleared and paid him his monthly allowances for the months in contention.
“It is also a shame that NYSC lost Mbah’s file, created a temporary file in the course of his service and could not even account for a whooping 12 certificates in Mbah’s certificate series. Yet the agency wanted to put the burden of their incompetence or collusion on an innocent person.
“We,therefore, call on the NYSC DG and the Director, Corps Certification to resign forthwith from the agency or be sacked.”
Going further, the group stated: “We make bold to say the excessive judgment debts incurred by MDAs due to the incompetence, recklessness, and impunity of government functionaries emanate from the fact that they do not bear the burden of the debts.
“We, therefore, call for legal reforms that would put the burden of judgment fees wholly or partly on MDAs and all senior officials under whose watch such infractions occurred. It should be tied to their salaries and/or retirement benefits for life to serve as a deterrent”, the group concluded.
