Information available to Bight News according to our findings has it that certain officials in the Presidency are bent on manipulating a Department of State Services (DSS) report on its findings on the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) exemption certificate of Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Sen. Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo.
Bight News sourced that the officials are led by Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and godfather of the Supreme Court-ousted Bayelsa State Governor-elect, David Lyon, Chief Timipre Sylva.
The Bayelsa State Elections Petitions Tribunal had early in the year ordered the DSS to investigate claims by the Accord Party (AP) and deregistered Liberation Movement (LM) that the deputy governor forged his NYSC exemption certificate.
Subsequently, DSS had in a letter dated February 24, 2020, and with reference number S.605/9787, requested the NYSC to furnish details of the circumstances sorrounding the Deputy Governor’s letter of exemption.
In a response dated 10th March 2020, NYSC said it was in receipt of a request by Deputy Governor Ewhrudjakpo dated April 4, 2019, that a typographical error on his NYSC exemption certificate be corrected to reflect his correct surname.
In the letter, the Deputy Governor said his surname “Ewhrudjakpo” was misspelt “Ewhrudjakpa”.
According to the letter, signed on behalf if the NYSC Director-General by one Mrs. Okonofua K.N., the NYSC said,: “Accordingly, his (Deputy Governor’s) request for the correction was therefore granted and duly effected in the Scheme’s database and on the original Certificate of Exemption No. 139708.”
NYSC added that “it was a minor error which does not require the replacement of the certificate marked Annexture F-G” by the tribunal.
However, dissatisfied with the contents of the NYSC letter, certain All Progressives Party (APC) leaders led by State Petroleum Minister, Sylva reportedly mounted pressure on the NYSC to write another report dated May 27, 2020.
The new report, DSS sources hinted, was aimed at creating the impression that that Deputy Governor Ewhrudjakpo unilaterally altered his name on the certificate, thereby making it a forged document.
The sources fingered a particular officer from the North, who was said to have been heavily compromised by Timipre Sylva and the disgraced Governor-elect David Lyon, as heading the plot to manipulate the DSS testimony at the tribunal.
The sources dismissed fears that the Director-General of the secret police is in the know of the new plot, adding, “Yusuf Bichii is not Lawal Daura, so there’s no way this officer will have his way’.
He added, “True, we know that shortly after the Supreme Court sacked David Lyon and his deputy, the Minister (Sylva) publicly apologized to Mr. President for bungling Bayelsa.
They were so embarrassed by Lyon’s ouster and have been running from pillar to post, clutching at every available straw to unseat Deputy Governor Ewhrudjakpo and his boss, Governor Douye Diri.
“We also know the officer he has been using to try to manipulate our original report., but be rest assured that the DSS as presently constituted is one of the few agencies of government run on professionalism and is devoid of political interference”, he assured, adding, ” whoever bribed the said officer just put his money in a waste bin”.
The DSS is expected to continue its testimony today, Tuesday.
