*DSS says certificate altered twice
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The Bayelsa State Governorship Election Tribunal has ordered that the state’s Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Oborawharievwo Ewhrudjakpo appears before it on Thursday to produce the original copy of his disputed certificate.
The tribunal’s order is in furtherance of a subpoena earlier issued on Ewhrudjakpo to appear and produce the original of the exemption certificate issued to him in 1998 by the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
The subpoena was issued on the request by the candidate of the Liberation Movement (LM) in the November 16, 2019 governorship election in Bayelsa, Vijah Opuama, who is challenging Ewhrudjakpo’s qualification to stand election, alleging that he (Ewhrudjakpo) submitted a forged exemption certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) before the election.
Although Ewhrudjakpo had, by a motion filed May 17, 2020 challenged the competence of the subpoena and prayed the tribunal to set it aside, his team of lawyers, led by Chukwuma Machukwu Ume (SAN), on Tuesday changed its mind and applied to withdraw the motion.
The lawyer said his client was no longer challenging the subpoena and was ready to attend the tribunal’s sitting.
Lawyers to the petitioner, PIus Danba Pius, and other parties in the case did not object to the application to withdraw the motion, challenging the subpoena.
Ruling, tribunal’s Chairman, Justice Ibrahim Sirajo struck out the motion and ordered Ewhrudjakpo’s appearance on Thursday.
The tribunal rejected his lawyer’s request that Ewhrudjakpo be allowed to appear next week on the grounds that since Bayelsa State does not have an airport, it would be difficult for the Deputy Governor to travel in view of the lockdown.
Meanwhile the Department of State Service (DSS) has revealed that two different alterations were effected on the certificate of exception.
In two reports of its investigation, dated May 27 and 28, 2020 tendered before the tribunal on Monday, the DSS said it learnt from the NYSC that the exemption certificate, with serial number: 139708 was altered twice.
It said Ewhrudjakpo allegedly effected the first alteration before writing to the NYSC on April 4, 2019 to effect another alteration, which was carried out last year.
Parts of the reports, signed by B. U. Yakubu (for Director General, SS), sighted by The Nation, reads: “Additional information received from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) revealed that the certificate of exemption (COE) number 139708 was genuinely issued to EWHRUOJAKPA, on age ground on the 2nd of February 1998.
“According to the NYSC, the certificate was issued based on the relevant documents submitted by EWHRUOJAKPA, supporting his claim.
“Furthermore, the agency disclosed that the ‘O’ in the COE on Annexure 3 had bee tampered with to read ‘D’ EWHRUDJAKPA instead of EWHRUOJAKPA.
“The NYSC noted that, it only corrected the COE to read EWHRUDJAKPO, adding that, it was only the last letter ‘A’ that it amended to read ‘O’.
“Based on the foregoing, and the relevant documents forwarded to this Service by the NYSC, it is evident that, subject altered the spelling of his surname to reflect letter ‘D’ as against the letter ‘O’ in the COE earlier issued by the NYSC.”
The DSS also wondered why the Bayelsa Deputy Governor only chose to write the NYSC on April 4, 2019 for the correction of a supposed typographical contained in the certificate issued in 1998 (about 21 years earlier).
“Based on the investigation conducted, the following were observed:
*The typographical error was made about twenty-one (21) years ago and since then subject did not deem it fit to correct it until an 4th April, 2019;
*Subject did not inform or send a copy of his application, requesting NYSC to correct the typographical error to RSUST (Rivers State University of Science and Technology);
*NYSC issued the Certificate of Exemption to subject on 2nd February 1998, while RSUST gave him his Testimonial on 3rd February, 1998. This suggest that, the issuance of the Certificate of Exemption to subject preceded the issuance of his Testimonial;
*Both copies of the old and new Certificate of Exemption issued to subject are bearing same certificate number (139708) and Signatory; and
*NYSC did not contact RSUST to ascertain the veracity or otherwise of subject 3 claim
“In view of the foregoing, the court may wish to direct the NYSC to furnish it with appropriate responses to the observations raised.”
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