The Importers Association of Nigeria (IMAN) is currently at war over the purported sack of its President, Chief Osita Okereke by some members under the aegis of its Board of Trustees.
However, Okereke in a statement on Wednesday described his alleged sack by the Chief Gilbert Bravo Obi led Board of Trustees as a farce, insisting that they had no powers to do so.
The group had on Friday allegedly sacked Chief Okereke claiming that he forged the Certificate of Incorporation.
But Chief Okereke, while dismissing the claims, disclosed that the Secretary General of NATFORCE, Mr. Kingsley Chikezie, who was in possession of the Certificate of Incorporation of IMAN, had told him that he lost the certificate when he was attacked by armed robbers on his way to Abuja.
He said consequently, the NATFORCE approached the Corporate Affairs Commission and that after fulfilling the requirements, another certificate was issued.
Okereke, who is also the Director General of NATFORCE noted that the purported meeting of IMAN’s Board of Trustees at Port-Harcourt on Friday 11th of December 2015 was illegal as the group had no locus standi to hold such a meeting.
“More so when the purported BoT members have lost their membership of IMAN having been suspended by a resolution from a previous meeting of the National Executive Committee, NEC, of IMAN duly summoned by the DG NATFORCE, by instructing the secretary as required by the constitution.
“Article 15B (f) of the constitution of IMAN empowers NEC the right to appoint members of BoT, Patrons and Grand Patrons of the association”, he said
He further stated that the supreme authority of the association “rests in the general meeting, which shall have power to decide the overall policies and programs of the association including electing officers of the association and removing same from office”.
He disclosed that “the only person authorized constitutionally to summon a meeting of the BoT or NEC was the President of Importers Association of Nigeria, IMAN, who incidentally is the Director General of NATFORCE, but peradventure where the president did not summon a meeting, two third of the members of the Board of Governors can mandate the secretary to do so.”
He insisted that Chief Gilbert Bravo Obi, Chief Jackson Bent, Dr Raph John and Chief Emeka Ani were not in any constitutional position to convene meetings.
Okereke urged the public to disregard his purported sack, maintaining that he remained the Director General of NATFORCE and President of Importers Association of Nigeria.
He noted that the NEC in its meeting of 7th of October, 2015 attended by (45) forty five out of (48) forty eight members, passed a vote of confidence on his leadership and went further to extend their tenure to 2019.
Chief Okereke claimed that Gilbert Obi and his group were former NSA, Sambo Dasuki’s boys, who want to hijack NATFORCE for exposing their alleged criminal activities.
While advising the group to go to court if they felt they had any case against him, Okereke called on President Muhammadu Buhari to investigate Chief Obi and his associates.
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