On Friday, the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court dismissed the preliminary objection filed by the National Youth Service Corp (NYSC) against Governor Peter Mbah’s N20 billion suit over alleged certificate forgery.

Justice Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling, held that the preliminary objection lacked merit and ought to be dismissed.

Mr Ekwo said section 20 of the NYSC Act, 2004, which NYSC based its objection on, did not apply to Mr Mbah since he was not a serving corps member.

“Again, I am minded to agree with the plaintiff (Mbah) on whom the provision of Section 20 of the NYSC Act, 2004 applies. This means that the provision has a category of persons to whom it is applicable,” the judge explained. “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.”

He added, “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.”

The judge stressed that 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,” pointing out that it “makes the provision applicable to ‘a prospective member of the service corps or any person who is a registered member’.”

Mr Ekwo held that upon studying the statement of Mr 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.”