The preliminary objection filed by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) against the N20 billion suit by the Enugu state governor, Peter Mbah, on Friday, dismissed by the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja.
The presiding judge, Inyang Ekwo, in a ruling on Friday, held that the objection by the NYSC lacked merit.
It could be recalled that the management of NYSC in February, issued a letter signed by Ibrahim Muhammad, the scheme’s director of corps certification, saying the discharge certificate being paraded by Mbah was not issued by the corps.
Meanwhile, Mbah approached the federal high court with an ex parte application, after which NYSC was restrained from further issuing a disclaimer on the certificate and then sued NYSC for what he described as conspiracy, deceit, and misrepresentation of facts while demanding N20 billion in compensation.
The governor also sought a declaration that the scheme and its director for corps certification “conspired by fraudulent design, suppressed, and misrepresented facts” in voiding his certificate of national service.
However, NYSC while filling a preliminary objection praying the court to dismiss the suit for want of jurisdiction, maintained that Mbah did not appeal to the president as required by the provisions of section 20 of the National Youth Service Corps act, cap N84, laws of the federation of Nigeria, 2004, before instituting the suit.
NYSC also argued that an appeal to the president was a condition precedent to instituting an action against the scheme in any court of law in Nigeria.
But Emeka Ozoani, Mbah’s counsel, had argued that section 20 of the NYSC act cited by the defendant’s lawyer, does not apply to his client.