The federal government will not rescind its decision to proscribe Ohaneze Ndigbo and Arewa Consultative Forum, the Registrar-General of the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Garba Abubakar, has said.
Mr Abubakar said, henceforth, requests for registration by socio-cultural groups and organisations would not be granted by the CAC without a certificate of security screening and clearance of their Board of Trustees members.
The CAC chief disclosed this on Saturday in Abuja while briefing reporters on the activities of the Commission.
He said there are growing concerns in recent times from security agencies over groups that have been granted registration whose Board of Trustees have turned out to be people with questionable characters and backgrounds.
Citing the examples of the Ohaneze Ndigbo General Assembly and Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) which have been proscribed by the federal government, Mr Abubakar said their registrations have since been withdrawn by the CAC.
The Commission, he said, would not process the requests for registration of groups whose activities would constitute a threat to national security.
“There is no going back on the decision to revoke the certificate of registration of the two groups, as they have since transformed from socio-cultural groups to political organisations.
The demand for security clearance of members of the Board of Trustees, he said, was part of the ongoing reforms on the requirement for consent for associations registered under Part C of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), to sanitize the operations of the CAC.
Companies covered under Part C of the CAMA are those set up not with the purpose of sharing its profits to members but registered strictly either as social, cultural, educational, development or other purposes.
Under the CAMA, such organizations are expected to appoint one or more members into their Board of Trustees to act as the legal representatives of the association.
In the past, Mr Abubakar said all sorts of names of such groups and organization were approved by the CAC without realizing the implications till getting to the point of producing the certificates of registration by the Commission.
He said security agencies have in recent times expressed serious concerns about the proliferation of some of the controversial organizations whose activities have constituted a source worry to both the government and Nigerians at large.
Prior to 2003, the Registrar-General said security agencies were responsible for vetting and conducting background checks of members of the Board of trustees of new organizations and recommend to the CAC for registration.
He said this arrangement was later replaced with the requirement for statutory declaration by every member of the Board of trustee to confirm full compliance with the legal requirements of the law on their sanity, good conduct, and criminal conviction within the last five years of their appointment.
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