Lawyer, Maxwell Opara Demands Submission Of Report By CAC Registrar-General, Abubakar Garba To NBA, As Well As Apology

A popular Abuja Lawyer and Human Rights Activist, Maxwell Opara, Esq, has demanded the Registrar-General of Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), Abubakar Garba, to submit its annual statutory report to the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).

This was disclosed in a Letter/ Pre-Action Notice by Opara, Esq, dated 2nd Nov, addressed to the Registrar and made available to TheNigerialawyer(TNL).

TheNigerialawyer(TNL), reported that the NBA at its Annual General Meeting held on 28th and 29, Oct, in Port Harcourt, received with great displeasure the letter from the Registrar-General, Abubakar Garba to the effect that the Commission, being a regulatory body, was not subordinate to the NBA to the extent that it should report its activities to the AGM.

In the letter, titled: “Demand For The Submission Of The CAC’s 2020/2021 Annual Statutory Report To The NBA” the activist, noted that one of his reasons for attending the conference was to listen to the commission’s annual statutory report and ask questions on the various issues bedeviling the CAC since Garba, took over at the helm of affairs.

“Unfortunately, you failed to grace the occasion and failed to send any representative for purposes of presenting the required annual statutory report. This unprecedented disregard for a vital process of public service has exhibited your leadership’s unfriendly disposition towards the NBA and total trashing of transparency and efficiency.

“It may interest you to know that the requirement for the submission of the CAC annual statutory report is in compliance with the law and as such your commission is under obligation to comply with the law.

“More so, the submission of the annual statutory report is an extremely important process through which your commission is to demonstrate transparency and efficiency in the service of the Nigerian people and in relation to stakeholders who work closely with the commission in fulfilling its mandate, for instance, the NBA.

“Therefore, it is my duty as a legal practitioner and a stakeholder to uphold the rule of law and transparency in governance.

He also demands that the Commission’s Registrar, Abubakar Garba tenders unreserved apology to the Association, and failure to do the needful will result to legal action.

“It is in the aforementioned backdrop that I write to demand that your commission should immediately submit the annual statutory report to the NBA in line with law and to tender an unreserved apology to the NBA.

“TAKE NOTICE that this is my pre-action notice, wherefore in the unfortunate event that you fail to comply with the demand herewith, I shall approach the court for redress.