The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in Abia state, Okey Ahaiwe, is challenging the validity of Governor Alex Otti of the Labour Party’s nomination prior to the state governorship election over the latter’s presentation of a letter purportedly from the National Youth Service Corps, (NYSC), court documents have shown.
In the court filing seen by Peoples Gazette, Friday Mr Ahiwe’s lawyers said his team would argue that Mr Otti “was at the time of the election not qualified to contest the election by reason of the fact that he failed to submit
his NYSC discharge certificate” to INEC when completing his nomination form.
Mr Otti presented a letter to INEC which was purportedly written in 1992 and appeared to certify the politician as having completed his mandatory one-year national service in Lagos.
“Due to circumstances beyond our control, he has not been able to receive his certificate of national service,” the letter, which appeared to have been generated from a contemporary NYSC boilerplate at the time, said. “This will be issued to him as soon as it is received from our head office in Abuja.”
Source: People's Gazette