By Musa Baba Adamu
The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Enugu State, Barr. Peter Mbah has declared that he was never at any time convicted of financial crimes.
Mbah has been a subject of discussion in Enugu State, with many claiming that he wriggled out of the hooks of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) through a plea bargain arrangement.
This took another dimension when a video was circulated in the State, entitled: ‘Ego Ndi Enugu’, (Enugu people’s money), wherein it was claimed that Mbah’s Pinnacle Oil was established through illicit funds syphoned from the Enugu State public fund.
Mbah was at a time the Chief of Staff to then Governor Chimaroke Nnamani.
However, speaking at the weekend, the PDP candidate said he was never invited by the EFCC, adding that whereas the commission wrote letters of invitation to some government officials, he went there on his own volition.
He added that the commission held him in a situation that could be best described as “a placeholder” to someone that was of interest to the anti-graft agency.
“I have never been convicted by EFCC, I have never indulged in plea bargain. My name was struck out even before trial commenced.
“I was never tried, I did not request that my name be struck out, the prosecution did it on his own.
“The people who are behind this fake news, if they were interested in knowing the truth, the court records are there,” he said while stating that “I have been a victim of several malicious attacks. People are engaging in a campaign of calumny, maligning me.
“Let them come with any modicum of evidence where I did plea bargain, I was never part of any trial. Ego Ndi Enugu does not exist.”
On the recent National Youths Service Corps, NYSC, certificate forgery allegation against him, Mbah restated that he completed his service after a three month break.
“I did my NYSC. I served and was honourably discharged. I have my discharged certificate. My place of primary assignment was Udeh & Co. I think the confusion was because I had a break. As an overseas graduate, when we were done with our Bar Part I, the next thing was for us to do Bar Part II, but we were just completing Bar Part 1 when the bar final students started”, he said.
