Human rights lawyer, Mr Femi Falana (SAN), has said on Wednesday, that the newly passed Companies and Allied Matters Act 2020, is an indirect attempt by the Buhari government, to reap where it did not sow
Falana while faulting some sections of the CAMA law, said attributing too much power to one person, that is, the Registrar General of the Corporate Affairs Commission, especially in a country and under a government which cannot be trusted to respect the rights of Nigerians, is extremely dangerous.
He said, such powers can easily be abused by clamping down on civil society organisation's in the country.
Falana voiced his concerns at a virtual town-hall meeting, with the theme, “CAMA 2020: Regulation or Repression?” co-organised by European Union-ACT; Open Society Initiative for West Africa; Working Group on Civil Society Regulatory Environment; Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project and the CAC.
Falana began by faulting Section 389 of the law that empowers the CAC to suspend the Board of Trustees of an organisation in crisis and appoint an interim committee to manage its affairs.
Describing the section as a violation of the rights to freedom of association, Falana argued that the CAC should allow organisations to manage their internal crisis in line with their constitutions.
He said, “The organisation has been registered with its constitution; the Registrar General of the CAC has no power to throw away the constitution incorporated with the organisation.
“Once you have registered the constitution of an organisation and it has provided for Board of Trustees, it has provided for accountability mechanisms, you must respect such provisions of the organisation’s constitution that has been registered.
“The point being made that we should allow this law to work before we point out these very dangerous provisions will not be the best approach.”
Faulting section 842 of the law which empowers the CAC to take over the funds in the bank accounts of an organisation in crisis, he said it was tantamount to “obtaining money by false pretence.”
Falana also condemned Section 831 of the law, which, he said, empowers the RG of the CAC to forcefully merge two organisations.
Furthermore, he described as most offensive, Section 851 of the law, which empowers the CAC to set up an Administrative Proceedings Committee, headed by the RG of CAC, to resolve internal disputes in an organisation.
Falana said, “The Administrative Proceedings Committee will be headed by the Registrar General of the CAC; so, he is going to be the accuser, the prosecutor and also the judge to decide who is wrong or right. He is also going to be empowered to impose penalties on any organisation who fails to file returns. These powers are draconian.”
The RG of CAC, Alhaji Garba Abubakar, however, said the new law should be allowed to operate first and given “benefit of the doubt; and if there are challenges we will address them by way of amendments.”