Things are falling apart in the Nigeria Association of Auctioneers (NAA) after its Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Abuja, WALE AJETUNMOBI reports.
Controversies, discordant tunes and accusations. These are the outcomes of the national election and Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Nigeria Association of Auctioneers (NAA) held last month at the Women Development Centre, Central Area of Abuja. The AGM, some aggrieved members said, was inconclusive.
Since then, the association has been in disarray, prompting its registered Board of Trustees (BoT) members to make moves to save the association from imminent collapse. The BoT said it has dissolved the national leadership of the association and constituted a caretaker committee to run its affairs.
The association’s national president, Alhaji Aliyu Kiliya, said the BoT members do not have powers to dissolve the executive. He also dismissed the claims that the AGM was inconclusive, denying the association is in crisis. He said he had won re-election for another term of four year, saying new leadership would be inaugurated in February.
But, at a meeting held in Lagos by members of BoT and some aggrieved members of the association, public and private organisations were cautioned to be wary of their dealings with members of the ‘dissolved’ executive, saying the Kiliya-led executive of the NAA had ceased to exist since December 15.
The BoT members said the dissolution of the NAA executive followed a crisis which rocked the association over the ‘inconclusive’ AGM. The trustees also said they had disbanded the electoral committee inaugurated by NAA national executive, describing the committee as fraudulent. They said the election would not stand.
The BoT members said the machinery of the association had been hijacked by people they described as “buccaneers”, noting that the dissolution of the executive was a move was to restore sanity in the association.
Chief Saibu Akan, who spoke for the five-member registered trustees, said the BoT took the move to save the association from imminent disrepute, which he said may lead to the collapse of the body founded 30 years ago.
Relying on Section 34(3) and (4) of the association’s constitution, Akan said the trustees the exercised powers vested in the registered BoT by dissolving the Kiliya-led executive and inaugurated caretaker committee led by Alhaji Salisu Garba to run the association for a period of six months.
The caretaker committee, which has Mr Goke Adedokun as its secretary, was installed on December 15 with the mandate to unite aggrieved members and conduct a new election into the national offices of the association.
However, Kiliya said the national executive had gone to court to challenge the legitimacy of the caretaker committee. Garba, Kiliya said, has been served with court order barring caretaker committee to run the affairs of the association.
Garba, however, denied being served any court order. He said Kiliya was lying.
Origin of the crisis
The crisis rocking the association, according to the BoT, started with the constitution of the organising committee for the AGM, which was initially scheduled to hold in Bauchi State. But, for security reasons, the AGM was moved to Abuja to enable members across the federation participate in it.
After a meeting held to select members of the AGM organising committee, Akan said the registered trustees were sidelined by the Kiliya-led executive in the process of ratification and swearing in of the committee members.
This, Akan said, contravened the association’s procedures and rules. He alleged that some unknown persons were appointed as members of BoT to ratify the organising committee members’ selection.
Akan said: “These unknown persons were nominated as trustees to represent their geo-political zones, but their membership is yet to be approved by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) in line with the laws and procedures. They were engaged as unregistered members to swear in the AGM organising committee. This was not proper, because it breached the provision of the association’s constitution.”
Of the five registered trustees statutorily recognised by the CAC, The Nation gathered that two are deceased. They are the late Mr. Ojo Olufemi and the late Chief Felix Igbinosa Ehigiator. The remaining three registered BoT members are Chief Akan, Mr Suara Ajuwon and Alhaji Fatai Mogbonjubola.
Akan said the three living members of the BoT should have inaugurated the organising committee for the AGM and the electoral committee in accordance to the association’s procedure.
He said: “When we discovered the NAA executive breached the constitution, we drew the attention of Kiliya to the problems. We instructed him to tell members of the committees to constantly submit the reports of their activities to the registered trustees for approval. Kiliya agreed to conditions and promised to do things in proper way.
“About two days to the AGM, the registered trustees summoned the organising committee members to submit the report of their activities, none of them showed up. We learnt they met with unrecognised trustees and took decision to go ahead with the AGM.”
This led to discontent in the association, because state chapters’ members feared they could be favouritism in the NAA election. This led to the call for the dissolution of the committees constituted by the unregistered trustees before the annual meeting.
Akan said: “We still reached out to the committee members on the eve of the AGM and told them they would use their agenda to destroy the association. We gave them the last chance to submit the report to know whether the AGM could hold or not. We reminded the committee members that all decisions must be taken at our instances.”
‘Inconclusive’ AGM
Despite the effort of the registered trustees to ensure the organisation of the AGM was in line with the association’s procedure, it was learnt that the organising committee installed by Kiliya-led executive went ahead with the event.
Some aggrieved members, it was learnt, boycotted the AGM because of the secrecy of the committee’s activities.
At the AGM, it was gathered that the president of the association could not give members the annual report of the national executive’s stewardship. Adedokun, who attended the AGM, said there was no debate on the financial reports read by the association’s Financial Secretary, Mrs Salamotu Abdullahi. This, he said, contravened the usual practice in the association, which gives members opportunities to debate the administration of the association’s affairs in line with its constitution.
Akan said: “It has never happened in the history of the association that the president would not give members annual report of his stewardship. It is the annual report that gives members a sense of direction about the association’s progress. Where there is a fault, members will take note and draw the attention of the executive. There will be argument and counter-argument before conclusion is reached and report is adopted. This was not done.”
Besides, the AGM was billed to start in the morning. But the event did not commence until 3:30pm, giving rise to claims that the Kiliya-led executive had predetermined agenda to disorganise the association.
When it was discovered that Kiliya had no annual report, some members walked out of the meeting in protest and called for dissolution of the national executive.
Also, against the rule of association, the Kiliya-executive said it did not have the list of attendees at the AGM. This, Akan said, breached the established procedures of the association, noting that absence of attendance record showed the AGM was null and void.
Allegations of financial impropriety
While the dust raised by Kiliya’s alleged failure to give annual report was yet to settle, it was learnt that the Financial Secretary allegedly failed to give detailed report about the finances of the association. It was alleged that Mrs Abdullahi read undetailed financial report at the AGM and failed to make copies of the report available to members.
This, it was learnt, gave rise to suspicion among members, who alleged that the Kiliya-led executive misappropriated the association’s Internally-Generated Revenue (IGR).
It was gathered that the finances of the association had not been audited in the last four years, despite the provision for annual audit of the account of the body by its duly elected national auditor.
Members also alleged that the registration fees paid for attendance at the AGM could not be accounted for by the national executive. It was gathered that more than N500,000 was realised from the AGM attendance fee, but about N100,000 was remitted to the association’s account by the organising committee.
Akan confirmed this, saying: “They could not provide the AGM attendance record for members to know how much realised. It is an important duty during the AGM to have the attendees’ list for us to know how much collected from people present.
“We asked Kiliya and other members of the executive to tell how much they realised from the AGM, they said it was N500,000. When we asked them to bring the money before we dissolve the executive, they came with N100,000 and we asked for the balance. They could not explain how they spent it.”
‘Fraudulent’ elections
The last straw the broke the camel’s back was the process adopted by the electoral committee on the conduction of election into the national executive offices. Against the association’s electoral procedure, candidates were asked to pay between N50,000 and N100,000 each to facilitate their nominations.
The registered trustees said the development was in anathema to the principles of the association, which make all offices open to members free of charge.
It was gathered that some candidates who could not pay up to N100,000 had their names screened out by members of the electoral committee. Besides, the money realised from the sale of nomination form for the election was not remitted into the association’s account.
This led to discontent among members who challenged the committee’s decision by sending petitions to the registered trustees for urgent actions. The BoT responded by dissolving the electoral committee and the national executive which inaugurated it.
To the surprise of the BoT, Akan said members of the electoral committee went ahead with the election despite allegation of favouritism and irregularities in the process.
He said: “When we received the petitions from aggrieved members, we knew the association was heading to precipice. We summoned the national president and aggrieved members for resolution of the crisis that arise from the AGM and election. To our surprise, Kiliya said he would not attend the meeting. Then next thing we heard was a rumour that the BoT has been charged to court. We have not seen any court summon.”
Kiliya: ‘crisis caused by NAA’s enemies’
Kiliya denied wrongdoings in the organisation of the AGM and constitution of the electoral committee. He described members of the BoT as enemies of the association, alleging that the trustees employed divide-and- rule tactics to perpetuate themselves in the BoT position for life.
Kiliya spoke through the association’s External Counsel, Ibrahim Jibril Gusau. He said the AGM was successfully held in line with the association’s constitution.
Gusau said: “It is not true that the last AGM was inconclusive. We have the video evidence to support this. The people claiming the event was inconclusive made the vote of thanks after the meeting. How possible is it for a vote of thanks to be said at an event some people claim is inconclusive? These people are enemies of the association.”
On the allegation of appointment of unregistered persons as BoT members, Gusau said: “We want the public to know that the association is a national body and every zone in the country must be given fair representation in the leadership of the association. In line with the constitution, members said the BoT membership should not come from one zone. The present BoT members are all from the Southwest, which does not reflect the true spirit of our constitution.
“At the 2014 AGM held in Minna in Niger State, members met to agree on the expansion of BoT membership to minimum of nine or maximum of 10 from five. The resolution was ratified by all members present and it was enshrined in the constitution that each zone must produce BoT member.
“Since this was done in 2014, the three registered trustees have not gone to the CAC to regularise the BoT membership expansion. They have been using divide-and-rule tactics to perpetuate themselves in the position for life. This is not done anywhere.”
Gusau also denied the allegation of financial appropriation against the Kiliya-led executive, wondering why the BoT members did not raise the issue during the AGM. He said there was never a time any member called for the auditing of the association’s account, noting that Kiliya is ready anytime for auditing of the executive activities.
The lawyer said the crisis came to the fore because the BoT members did not want membership extended to people from other region. He said all allegations against any member of the executive were unfounded. He advised the aggrieved members to follow the conflict resolution process spelt out in the association’s constitution, urging them to channel their complaints to the body’s disciplinary committee.
The way forward
While the warring parties disagree on how the association should be run, both are on the same page on how the crisis can be resolved.
Akan said: “BoT is the custodian of the association’s values. We are open for peaceful settlement of the crisis, because in-fighting cannot bring anything good to the association. We are not taking the action to witch-hunt or drive away anyone; we took the decision to save the association from collapse. The Kiliya-led executive erred, so we need to make correction and unite members.”
Gusau said: “We want the aggrieved members to come for dialogue. Only dialogue can keep peace and unite members. Our position will not change. We want the membership of the BoT expanded to other zones in order to give the association a national outlook.”
