Ohanaeze Ndigbo Assembly sues CAC for N500bn over de-registration

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Ohanaeze

Ohanaeze Ndigbo

The Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide has sued the Corporate Affairs Commission for N500bn for deregistering it.

The President General of the body, Basil Onyeacholam, a lawyer, disclosed this to our correspondent on the telephone in Awka, the Anambra State capital, on Thursday.

The CAC had some days ago reportedly registered the group, stating that it did not meet some conditions subsequent for registration.

We had reported that following the inauguration of the new Ohanaeze group about a week ago, the mainstream Ohanaeze Ndigbo led by Chief Nnia Nwodo disowned it and called its members rabble-rousers and buccaneers.

But Onyeacholam said the CAC had no right in law to deregister it, stating that only a court of law had the powers to pronounce on such issues.

He said,”The action the Corporate Affairs Commission has taken is a golden opportunity to Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide .

“The CAC does not have the right to withdraw a certificate of incorporation because the provisions of the law on this are very clear.

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“First and foremost, the law requires that to incorporate an organisation under Part C of the Company and Allied Matters Act 1990( as amended) you first of all have to apply for name availability, which we did..

“We pursued this particular objective and the CAC wrote to us on 27th of January,2020 notifying us of the approval of the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly. That name was approved by CAC. I have the letter of approval with me.

He added,”Another prerequisite for incorporation under Part C of CAMA is that newspaper publication has to be made.

Section 594 of CAMA,1990(as amended), expressly provides in paragraph 1 that if the commission is satisfied that the application has complied with the provisions of sections 591,592 and 593 of CAMA, it will cause the application to be published in a prescribed form in two daily newspapers circulating in the area where the corporation is to be situated, at least one of the newspaper shall be a national newspaper.

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“We made newspaper publications to this effect. And the law requires the publication a duration of 28 days. The purpose of this duration is to enable the members of the public to object or there could be petition. And these publicationd were made and there was no objection.

He said based on that the Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly proceeded ; paid the necessary and prescribed fees at the CAC and certificate was issued to it.

Onyeacholam added, “The law requires that certificate of incorporation is a prima facie evidence of registration.
“Section 596 of CAMA, provides for effects of registration of certificate .

“Based on this, the CAC does not have the right to wake up one morning and say it has deregistered Ohanaeze General Assembly. It’s not done that way.

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“The certificate is with us. It’s only the court of law that can give a verdict on this. The law says a certificate of incorporation when granted shall be prima facia evidence that all conditions have been complied with.

added,”We are going to court. And amongst the orders we shall be asking the court to make will include but not limited to damages against CAC to the tune of N500bn . I’m sure we’re going to get that order.


” If they don’t have the money to pay us after judgement, we shall sell there Abuja property or use it as Abuja office of Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly. It’s a very good case. Nobody can deregister the Ohanaeze Ndigbo except by the pronouncements of the court.”

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