The Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Shippers Association of Lagos State (SALS) ended inconclusively following irregularities surrounding the group’s registration with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
During the five-hour meeting which held on Thursday in Lagos, the inability of the Association to file its 2023 annual account to CAC as a result of a twelve-year backlog came to fore.
The details of the anomaly were laid bare by aggrieved members following an internal dispute which was also resolved at the meeting.
Pioneer members of the association are in court with the current administration for allegedly being unduly elected and having no moral or legal standing to govern the affairs of the Association.
According to the President of SALS, Mr. Leo Ogamba the Association would require a sum of about six hundred and fifty thousand naira (N650,000.00) to process the regularisation with the CAC.
He disclosed that the former executives of the Association have not presented themselves for the mandatory change of signatory to the Association’s account, hence, the Association cannot access her funds for deposits or withdrawals.
Representative of the Legal Adviser, Bola Ajibola and Co., Ms. Regina Chukwu, stated that unless the records of the Association is brought to date, it remains inactive in the eyes of the CAC.
“From my search on the CAC, the registration was done in 2010. So, prior to that time they were probably just under the national umbrella and decided to incorporate in 2010.
“What we are doing for them now is to file their annual returns which is a requirement for the CAC. CAC requires that every association that is being registered makes an annual filing. This annual filing is more or less letting CAC know that the association is still existing whether they are making profit or not. This makes CAC know that the association or business is in existence. It is a regulatory filing that every association needs to make.
SALS members present at the meeting immediately swung into action geared at fundraising to update the Association’s books with the CAC.
Ogamba declined speaking stating that the house would reconvene after meeting statutory requirements of the CAC to brief the media.
