By Francis Etuko
Abuja (Precise Post) – The Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly Worldwide is talking tough over its deregistration and 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 on Thursday .
The CAC had reportedly deregistered the group , stating that it did not meet some conditions.
Recall that following the inauguration of the new Ohanaeze group about a week ago, the mainstream Ohanaeze Ndigbo , led by Chief Nnia Nwodo , had called its members rabble-rousers and buccaneers .
But on Thursday , Onyeacholam said , “The CAC does not have the right to withdraw a certificate of incorporation because the provisions of the law are very clear .
“ 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 the CAC .
“ 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 a petition . And these publications were made and there was no objection.
“ 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 .
“ The certificate is with us . It ’ s only the court of law that can give a verdict on this.
“ We are going to court , and amongst the orders we shall be asking the court to make will include damages against the CAC to the tune of N500bn .
Meanwhile , the Ohanaeze Ndigbo on Thursday said there was no crack in the leadership of the organisation led by Chief John Nnia Nwodo .
Ohanaeze , which insisted that it was Igbo’ s turn to produce a President of Nigeria after the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd . ), said enemies of Ndigbo were behind the purported registration of the factional Ohanaeze Ndigbo General Assembly .
The deputy National Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze , Chief Chuks Ibegbu , in a statement said that the purported crisis or division in the leadership of the apex Igbo body was a figment of imagination of misguided elements .
Powered by RubiQube Ad N “These elements are used by Igbo enemies with peanuts to cause confusion in Igbo land and they will be ostracised in Igbo affairs for this treasonable act . The Federal Government should probe the CAC activities .
“ Meanwhile , Ohanaeze Ndigbo will be building bridges and links with all parts of Nigeria to realise the 2023 presidency; its Igbo turn to produce Nigeria President after President Buhari.
