Welders’ Board Of Trustees Decry Illegal AGM, Vows Zero Tolerance

The Board of Trustees of the Nigerian Institute of Welding (NIW) has dissociated the Institute from a meeting held under its name without authorisation at the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) Conference Centre in Effurun, Delta State, over the weekend.

In separate interviews with BoT chairman Dr. Chudi Egbunike and other board members, PA Omojafor Micheal, Engr. Moses Umuwe and Prof. Sunny Eromosele frowned at the recent development, however, calling the faction “disgruntled and misaligned with the core value of what the professional body stands for.”

They referred to the earlier disclaimer that only a set of lawless persons would proceed with that act after the disclaimer. The Secretary of the NIW BoT, Dr. Solomon Edebiri, described the gathering as “a shambolic exercise using the cover of an institution such as the NIW.”

He clarified that “the NIW is a duly registered organisation by the body vested with powers to register corporate bodies in Nigeria, the CAC, stating that the law prescribes the way and manner Annual General meetings are held. He described the organisers of the illegal meeting, tagged the AGM and Partners meeting, as a team that was absolutely ignorant of the law and urged the public to disregard the meeting and its resolutions.

“The Leadership of the NIW expressed shock that in a society, Professionals would attempt to invoke law even when they themselves and the capacity in which they invoke those laws are not known to the very law they claim to rely on.

“To avoid doubt, the meeting instituted by some of its members, Shehu Ma’aji, Samaila Sifawa Umar, Michael Adegbite and Clement Eribo, did not emanate from the NIW. Though the said Ma’aji and Samaila, who conveyed the meeting, are members of the board of trustees of the institute, and by the NIW Constitution, they do not have the authority and mandate to act on behalf of the institute or make decisions for her, neither do Clement Eribo and Michael Adegbite, who are non-members of the BOT.

“The officers responsible for the day-to-day running and management of the institute are the Chairman and Secretary of the BOT of NIW, who were duly present at a meeting wherein Ma’aji and Samila took part.

“The said Ma’aji and Samaila decided to join non members of the institute to form opposition in the bid to grab the authority of the instate illegally thereby constituting themselves to renegade members of the BOT of the Nigeria Institute of Welding who, and have illegally been attempting to interfere with the smooth management of the institute even against the decision of the court who had earlier declared such meetings as illegal.”

They said, “The profound irony of this action cannot be overlooked. We totally disavow in its entirety the gathering of purported members bearing the flag of the NIW to host an illegal AGM on the institute’s behalf.

“These said members are not members of the Institute but foreign bodies whose identity is unknown to us. We stand to state unequivocally that we are a professional body and there is no crisis in the institute, and assure that the BoT will meet shortly and take decisive action on the issue.”