Obi dismissed the report that the company was liquidated by the UK authorities, saying that the owners of the company voluntarily liquidated the firm as it was no longer in operation.
Official documents have reportedly shown that the claim by the Head of Obi-Datti Media Office, Diran Onifade, lied about how UK company, Next International (UK) Limited, largely owned by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi was dissolved.
Premium Times reports that Onifade was deceptive in his claim that the Next International (UK) Limited owners voluntarily liquidated the firm as it was no longer in operation.
Premium Times had exclusively reported that the UK authorities struck off the company over its failure to submit its annual accounts for 2020.
But Obi in a statement issued through Obi-Datti Media Office, signed by Onifade dismissed the report that the company was liquidated by the UK authorities, saying that the owners of the company voluntarily liquidated the firm as it was no longer in operation.
The media office also lambasted agents of the political opposition ‘unsettled by the high-rising profile of Obi for trying to make a political capital out of the development’.
A statement by the Obi-Datti Media Office had said, “For the records, the entity was 99% owned by Next (Nig) International Ltd. and established as its buying office in the 90s and Peter Obi was its CEO.
"At the time Peter Obi became governor of Anambra State in 2006, his wife assumed management of the winding down of the company and about one year ago requested that the company be dissolved under the voluntary strike off of the entity on grounds of dissolution and being inoperational, which is normal in winding up an entity.”
The statement added that “Peter Obi has consistently maintained that he is no longer involved in any Next related business,” and berated those twisting the resting of Next International (UK) Ltd., saying, “When our principal insists that you go and verify facts about him and the information he dishes out, it didn’t say go and falsify facts.”
According to the media office, “The LP candidate by his antecedents in Anambra State for eight years, in private ventures where he held sway his records among the pack in this race for the Presidency, puts him miles ahead in moral rating”.
“The media office believes this explanation and clarification has put to rest any further chasing of the wind over the matter by political jobbers in the opposition camps,” it had said.
But Premium Times reports that Onifade’s claim that the company was voluntarily dissolved is a lie as the claim has been contradicted by official documents.
According to the report, UK Liquidators said that a voluntary strike-off in the UK is when a company director voluntarily requests that their company is struck off the register by submitting a DS01 form to Companies House and paying the appropriate administration fee.
The report quotes a financial consulting firm as saying, “A notice will be placed in the Gazette declaring your intention to dissolve the company, and following two months – supposing no objections have been received – the company’s name will be removed from the register held at Companies House and it will cease to exist as a legal entity.”
It further reports that documents obtained from the Companies House show that Onifade’s claim is not correct as Next International was “compulsorily struck off” and “dissolved” and there is no record of voluntary liquidation.
The report noted that to confirm that the company was struck off compulsorily, a first official notice was issued to Next International (UK) Limited on June 22, 2021, when the company was warned that failure to file its annual report will lead to its removal from the Company House Register.
The company received a second and final notice to submit its annual account on August 31, 2021, but when the Companies House didn’t receive any reply to its letters from the firm, a final gazette to dissolve the entity was issued on September 7, 2021.
Premium Times further reports that before its final dissolution, records show that at various times, UK Companies House had to issue a warning for “compulsory strike-off” before Next International filed its annual report, noting that in one instance, the Registrar of Companies gave notice on September 10, 2013, saying “unless cause is shown to the contrary, at the expiration of three months from the above date, Next International (UK) Limited will be struck off the register and the company will be dissolved.”
Also, on September 18, 2013, a week after receiving the above notice, the officers of the company filed their annual report with the Companies House. Consequently, a notice was issued to discontinue the strike-off action.
The gazette was quoted as stating: “Cause has been shown why the company should not be struck off the register and accordingly the Registrar is taking no further action under section 1000 of the Companies Act 2006 pursuant to the notice dated 18th September 2013.”
In a similar manner, it was reported that after the 2013 issue, records showed that for four consecutive years - 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, the UK authorities had to always issue a warning of removal from the Company House Register before the firm filed its annual accounts.
In each of those four years, immediately after a warning was issued, the company would submit its annual report and a gazette would be issued to discontinue the compulsory strike-off action by the Company House.