Due to failure to submit annual accounts, the authorities in the United Kingdom, United Kingdom, have dissolved Next International (UK) Limited, a the company is largely owned by Nigeria’s top politicians and Labor Party presidential candidatesPeter Obi.
An investigation by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that the company was removed from the record in September 2021 after the first and second news reports about the “mandatory” removal of the entity.
In the UK, a compulsory strike is imposed on a company by its creditors or by Companies House for not submitting annual accounts or not notifying Companies House of a change of official office address. Once a company is wound up, the details are removed from the Companies House register and the company ceases to exist.
Next International (UK) Limited failed to submit its annual accounts for 2020, so the company was dissolved and liquidated in 2021.
However, before a company is delisted, the UK requires the Registrar of Companies House to send at least two official letters to the company warning that failure to file annual accounts will result in deregistration.
According to UK Liquidators, a financial consultancy firm, if Companies House does not receive a reply to its letters, it will publish the first ‘strike notice’ in the Gazette, which is the official journal of public record.
The first official notice to dissolve Next International was issued on June 22, 2021, followed by a second notice on August 31, 2021. The last notice to dissolve the company was issued on September 7, 2021.
Before the final dissolution, records show that for four consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020) UK Companies House must always issue the “first notice of compulsory strike” before Next International files its annual accounts. Then the company immediately submits its annual accounts, a gazette will be issued to end the compulsory strike action.
A private limited company, Next International was incorporated on May 16, 1996. Mr. Obi is listed as a director while his wife, Margaret, is the secretary. Next International (Nigeria) Limited (with 999 ordinary shares) and Mr. Obi (with one ordinary share) are listed as shareholders.
Records show the company is registered as a “business agent engaged in the sale of various goods” in England and Wales.
The company is said to have taken out a mortgage from Lloyds TSB Bank Plc for a property at 53 Clyde Road, Croydon.
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On May 16, 2008, 14 months after assuming office as governor of Anambra State, Mr. Obi resigned as director of Next International.
He assumed office on March 17, 2006 but continued to be a director of the company in violation of Nigerian law.
In Nigeria, people have been statutorily required to withdraw from participating in or directing private business, except if farming, while being a public official, Section Six (6) of the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act provides.
The former governor admitted to PREMIUM TIMES in 2021 that he did not declare the company and the funds and properties it holds in the asset declaration declaration with the Code of Ethics Bureau, a Nigerian government agency that deals with corruption, conflict of interest. , and abuse of office by civil servants.
At the time, Mr. Obi said he did not know that the law expected him to disclose assets or companies he jointly owned with family members or others.
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