Igbo group discontinues N500 billion case against CAC

Commission backpedals, recertifies organisation

Ohaneze Ndigbo General Assembly (Worldwide) has withdrawn its N500 billion suit against the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

The group said the decision was informed by the reinstatement of its certificate of incorporation.

The case followed the earlier deregistration of the organisation on alleged security grounds.

The commission had said the body failed Directorate of State Services (DSS) screening, one of the major criteria for registering non-governmental organisations (NGOs) under the law.

The Guardian, on July 27, 2020, published a story relating to the withdrawal of recognition to the body after a media interaction with the CAC Registrar-General, Garba Abubakar, in Abuja.

Briefing reporters at the weekend in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), the group’s President General Basil Onuorah, stated: “Ohaneze Ndigbo General Assembly (Worldwide) is pleased to inform Ndigbo all over the world that CAC has restored the organisation’s certificate of incorporation earlier withdrawn in line with the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA) 1990 as amended.”

“We have also discontinued our N500 billion civil suit against the CAC, numbered FHC/ABJ/CS/790/2020. The public is hereby notified accordingly,” he added.

Onuorah said it was a “thing of joy to announce to Ndigbo all over the world that Ohaneze Ndigbo, for the first time in the history of its existence, is now registered with the CAC in Nigeria, and with registration number, IT -144918.”

Insisting that the assembly is not a faction, the president-general noted: “Ohanaeze Ndigbo is now a body with corporate status, legally recognised by the Federal Government of Nigeria, Charter of the United Nations and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

He stressed that the ongoing restructuring of the organisation was to rebrand it from a “mere pressure group, an elders’ forum of certain political persuasions existing without corporate legal status driven by egocentrism and lack of accountability.”

Onuorah continued: “We are honoured and humbled by the support of notable Igbo leaders in Nigeria and in Diaspora, who are committed to the unity, security, prosperity of Ndigbo and the ongoing restructuring of our apex socio-cultural organisation.”

He sought the cooperation of stakeholders to chart a better future for ethnic nationality.