Leadership Crisis: Lagos Country Club holds EGM, constitutes caretaker committee

To resolve the protracted leadership crisis, the Lagos Country Club (LCC) has constituted a Caretaker Committee to oversee the affairs of the club and organise election into the various vacant positions within a period of two months.

This resolution was taken by the members during an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), on Thursday. The 160 members, who were at the crucial meeting, voted overwhelmingly to constitute a Caretaker Committee

The newly constituted Caretaker Committee, which comprised of Mr. Adewole Gege as Chairman; Mr. Adetayo Adegboye (Secretary); Olawole Harris ( Legal Adviser) as well as  the chairmen of the 10 Sections of the club  would be sworn in on Saturday, October 12, 2024.

The Gege-led committee  would replace the former Caretaker Committee set up on the basis of a Consent Judgment to administer the club for a period of three months, which expired on Friday.

Recall that the  club had been embroiled in internal crisis, which led to several court cases. But on July 3, 2024, Justice A Lewis-Allagoa of the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos delivered a Consent Judgment after the cases were harmonised and the aggrieved parties decided to tow the path of reconciliation.

The consent judgment stipulated the formation of a Caretaker Committee to take charge of managing the affairs Club according to the constitution for 90 days. Within that period, members alleged to have committed infractions were to face the Disciplinary Committee,  after which the decision of the Caretaker Committee on the Report of the exercise would be forwarded to an Extraordinary General Meeting of members for ratification. The consent judgment also ordered that the caretaker committee conduct an election of officers into the Management Council to oversee the day to day running of the club.

While the Caretaker Committee was formed and members alleged of commiting infractions had faced a disciplinary committee, other terms of the consent judgement  were yet to be undertaken by the Caretaker Committee before the expiration of its tenure on Friday, October 11, 2024.

However, adhering to the Club’s constitution and to avoid vacuum in the affairs of the Club, members exercised their right to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting to take decisions to  move  the Club, which attained 75 years in August,  forward.

At the meeting which was chaired by Mr Igho Okor, a former Vice President of the Club, the secretary read out the report of the Disciplinary Committee which was ratified by the members.

The members also expressed their disappointment with the conduct of the former Caretaker Committee charged to implement the terms of the Consent judgment.

According to  Mr Ayokunle Jimoh, a former Secretary General of the Club: “The court asked us to conduct this EGM and we are abiding by the Court consent judgement.”

“This is a very important period in the history of our club because some people have held us by the jugular and all we are doing now is rescuing the club from them, restoring the administration of the club to normalcy and also restoring peace back to the club. And members are yearning for this. So, we members are now rising up to say we want to take our club back without violating any court ruling or any aspect of the consent judgement that was issued by the Court. This where we are now and as you can see, members are here in their numbers. They are tired of the stagnation in the club and they want to move forward.”

Sir Ladi Smith, a member of the club since 1985, the EGM is an avenue for members to  restore the prestige of the club.

“There is a wrong perception out there that some people that may be calling themselves Trustees are the owners of the Club, meanwhile the people who are the fee-paying members appointed the Trustees,” said Smith.

“We’re going to have new elections. We’re going to have a revamp and reengineering of the club because a lot of things had been taken for granted. The constitution has been put aside by people who have disregarded it. Now, we want to make sure the constitution works for us. And where we believe the constitution is also not working for us, we as members are going to restructure the constitution to work for us. So, we’re here to take the club back and make sure it works for us..”

The Chairman of Darts Section, Mrs Adekunbi Akin-Taylor, described the EGM as a necessity.

“This EGM is a necessity because the club has been held on ransom for too long,” she said.

“We’ve been at it for so long, there’s been so many court orders, so many court appearances, and the court has given Lagos Country Club the chance for all parties involved to  sit down and do things right, call for elections and keep the club moving. But unfortunately, Friday, October 11, 2024 was the last day for the Caretaker Committee that was supposed to do all the work, call the elections and nothing has been done. And all club members are really affected by this. This is a social club where people pay their yearly subscription to come in and have peace of mind. So, it’s a matter of saying we’ve got to set this club free and we’ve got to get the club back to what we want it to be.”