Justice Inyang Ekwo of the court however rejected the interlocutory application on Tuesday, during the resumed hearing of the suit, numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/611/2023.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on Tuesday has refused an interlocutory application of the Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah to restrain the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) from tendering evidence to the Enugu State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal.
Recall that the governor who was accused of allegedly forging his NYSC discharge certificate sought an interlocutory application through his counsel, Emeka Ozoani, (SAN) to stop the NYSC from giving evidence on alleged NYSC certificate forgery at the tribunal.
Justice Inyang Ekwo of the court however rejected the interlocutory application on Tuesday, during the resumed hearing of the suit, numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/611/2023.
The interlocutory injunction is a court order to compel or prevent a party from taking certain actions pending the final determination of the case. It is usually issued to maintain the status quo until judgment can be made.
This implied the NYSC would have stopped from making any commentary, written or oral about the contentious discharge certificate until whichever time the case is determined by the court.
This platform recalls that Justice Ekwo on May 16 had issued an ex parte other restraining the NYSC from making any further publications concerning Mbah’s NYSC discharge certificate because of the uproar by the public.
But during the resumed hearing on Tuesday, Justice Ekwo appeared to be in a hurry to remedy the earlier ex parte it issued, as he barely waited for Ozoani to finish speaking before cutting him short to say that “this court will not entertain any such application”.
He told Mbah’s counsel to forget about the injunction and concentrate on the main suit.
The court consequently adjourned the case to July 11, 2023, to hear the preliminary objection challenging the competence of the suit filed by the NYSC.
Mbah had dragged the NYSC to court because the corps claimed that his discharged certificate was not issued by it.
However, the governor is claiming N20 billion for what he described as conspiracy, deceit, and misrepresentation of facts.
Apart from N20 billion in damages being sought by Mbah, he is seeking a declaration that he participated in the NYSC scheme for one calendar year via a call-up letter numbered FRN/2001/800351 with the Lagos code LA/01/1532.
He also argued that the declaration must state that he was issued a certificate of national service numbered A808297 upon the completion of his service year in 2003.