Authorities in the United Kingdom have disqualified Next International (UK) Limited, a business that is largely owned by Labour Party presidential candidate Peter Obi, for failing to file its annual reports.
According to Premium Times, an online publication, the firm was struck off the records in September 2021 as a result of first and second gazette notices of “compulsory” strikeoffs.
In the UK, failure to submit annual accounts or neglect to inform Companies House of a change in the official registered office address results in a company being forced to be struck off by creditors or the Companies House.
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A company’s information will be deleted from the Companies House record when it has been struck off, and it no longer exists.
Next International (UK) Limited was struck off the register and liquidated in 2021 as a result of failing to submit its annual reports for the year 2020.
However, the UK mandates that the Registrar of Companies House issue the company at least two formal letters warning that failure to file its annual accounts will result in its removal from the register before a company is struck off.
According to UK Liquidators, a financial consultancy firm, Companies House will publish a first “strike off notice” in the Gazette, which is the official journal of public record, if it doesn’t receive a response to its letters.
Next International received two official notices to be struck off, the first on June 22, 2021, and the second on August 31, 2021. On September 7, 2021, a definitive gazette dissolving the firm was published.
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Records indicate that, prior to Next International’s final dissolution, the UK Companies House was required to always issue a “first gazette notice for compulsory strike-off” before Next International filed its annual account for four consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020). The mandatory strike-off action would thereafter be stopped as soon as the company submits its annual reports, according to a gazette.
On May 16, 1996, Next International became a private limited corporation. While his wife Margaret acted as secretary, Mr. Obi was identified as a director. Both Mr. Obi and Next International (Nigeria) Limited, each holding one ordinary share, were named as shareholders.
Records indicate that the business was registered in England and Wales as “agents involved in the sale of a variety of items.”
The company disclosed obtaining a mortgage for a home at 53 Clyde Road in Croydon from Lloyds TSB Bank Plc.
Peter Obi left his position as director of Next International on May 16, 2008, 14 months after taking office as the governor of Anambra State.
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Even after taking office on March 17, 2006, he broke Nigerian law by continuing to be a director of the corporation.
In Nigeria, Section Six (6) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act mandates that anyone who becomes a public officer must cease operating or managing a private business, unless it is farming.
The former governor acknowledged to Premium Times in 2021 that he failed to disclose these businesses, as well as the money and assets they held, in his asset declaration filings with the Nigerian government’s Code of Conduct Bureau, which handles matters of corruption, conflicts of interest, and abuse of office by public officials.
Mr. Obi said that at the time, he was not aware that the law required him to disclose any assets or businesses that he jointly owned with his family, other individuals, or other parties.
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