By Linus Aleke
A pan-Okpe socio-cultural group, Okpe Union on Monday drew public attention to impostors parading as Interim National Executive Council of Okpe Union, warning the Corporate Affairs Commission against dealing with the illegitimate group led by one Prof. Emurobome Idolor.
The Union decried the interference of a traditional ruler of Okpe in the affairs of the Union, even when he is not a member, saying that the monarch’s activities violate the laws of the land.
The National Executive Council of the Okpe Union gave this warning in a statement jointly signed by the President-General, Prof. Igho Natufe, and General Secretary, Barrister Akpederin Kingsley Ehensiri.
The group specifically called on the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission to reject whatever applications that come to the Commission from the Prof. Emurobome Idolor Imposter group or any other not authorized by the elected National Executive Council of the Okpe Union.
The Union further demanded that the Commission should investigate the matter dispassionately and take notice of the fact that the address of the elected NEC is also the registered office of the Okpe Union with the Commission.
Prof. Natufe noted that the fact that the election of the current National Executive Council like the others before it took place at the Hall of the registered office of the Union on the 15th of May, 2021 is strong evidence of who the genuine representatives of the Okpe Union are.
The statement reads in part, “The attention of the Okpe Union NEC has been drawn to the alleged dealing by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) with some persons led by one Prof. Emurobome Idolor who are unknown to and never authorized by the Okpe Union in respect of the regularisation process of the Board of Trustees of the Okpe Union.
We, the members of the elected National Executive Council of the Okpe Union ably led by Prof. Igho Natufe hereby state the following so that the Corporate Affairs Commission, the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission and the general public will be well guided.
This has become necessary as we have learned that the self-styled Interim National Executive Council members led by Prof. Emurobome Idolor, that have been parading themselves have sent a list of persons to the Corporate Affairs Commission and have applied to the Commission to register them as Trustees of the Okpe Union.
This imposter group is said to be claiming leadership of the organisation on the basis of a publication signed by HRM, Orhue l, Orodje of Okpe, purporting to dissolve the elected National Executive Council of the Okpe Union and imposing the said Interim Executive comprising persons unknown to the various branches of the Okpe Union.
“In order for the Corporate Affairs Commission in particular and the general public to understand the subject matter, the National Executive Council on behalf of the various members and branches of the Okpe Union state as follows regarding recent developments: ‘That the Okpe Union was founded in 1930 and registered with the Nigerian Colonial Government on the 13th of December, 1934 under the Lands (Perpetual Succession) Ordinance of 1924 with its constitution as a dues-paying members-only organization.
Its Registered Office from the current records of the Corporate Affairs Commission is No. 67, (now No. 65), Moshalashi Street, Ikoyi, Lagos. The Okpe Union has had an unbroken chain of democratic transition of leadership from its inception and registration in 1930 and 1934 respectively.
Delegates from the branches of the organization assemble in a National Conference/General Meeting at the expiration of the tenure of an outgoing National Executive Council of the Okpe Union and elect a successor National Executive Council”.
On interference by the monarch, the group said: “That the action of the Traditional Ruler, Orhue I, the Orodje of Okpe (who is neither a member of the Okpe Union nor given any administrative powers by the Constitution of the Okpe Union), on the 3rd of October, 2020, which purported to dissolve the elected National Executive Council and impose strangers on the Okpe Union as its Interim National Executive Council is not only unprecedented, but also contrary to the provisions of the Union Constitution, inconsistent with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria especially the sections which guarantee freedom of association, and it is also a gross violation of various corporate governance laws of Nigeria.
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That as the previous registered trustees of the Okpe Union had all passed on, the elected National Executive Council had begun the process of regularising the status of the Union with the Corporate Affairs Commission by requesting the Commission to furnish the Union with its indebtedness for failure to file returns and penalties for some years as well as applying to the Federal High Court, Lagos for an order to appoint trustees to replace the former ones who have all died which ruling is due in a few weeks.
On the 4th of June, 2021, the elected National Executive Council of the Okpe Union led by Prof Igho Natufe wrote to the Registrar General of the Commission (which was received by the Commission on the 7th of June, 2021) to complain about the moves of the said imposter group to which the Commission has not responded. We were therefore shocked to discover that the group has submitted a list of proposed trustees for the Okpe Union which the Union knows nothing about and which is a clear breach of the Union’s constitution and the country’s extant laws and rules of the Commission”.
Noting that the Corporate governance laws of the Federation of Nigeria, as well as the various regulations of the Corporate Affairs Commission relating to the administration of the nongovernmental organizations especially, registered trustees, the group concluded that “no nonmembers or persons unauthorized by the organization ought to be recognized as representatives of that organization”.
