FG’s Alleged Plan To Hijack N200bn Unclaimed Dividend Illegal Says ISAN
By Our Correspondent
The Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria(ISAN) has said that plans by the Federal Government to takeover the N200 billion unclaimed dividend is unconstitutional.
ISAN which declared this in a position paper signed by its Founder,Sir Sunny Nwosu and National Co-ordinator, Dr Anthony Omojola stated that the underground moves to takeover the funds via a “trust fund”is null and void as government lacks powers to manage funds belonging to private sector investors.
Also,they posited that the reported scheme by government to borrow from the fund is apparently illegal, because you can not borrow money without the consent of the owner.
As the shareholder group pointed out:”Dividends are private wealth of investors,either individuals or corporate entities.The idea of converting such private wealth to federal wealth negates the relevant provisions of the rights to own property as guaranteed by the 1999 constitution.
“Our opinion,is that S39 to the extent of its inconsistency with S44 of the 1999 constitution(as amended)is null and void.
The law expressly states that there shall be no forceful takeover of any private move-able property of any Nigerian without due and appropriate compensation and or valid court order.”
ISAN reminded all and sundry that dividends are only available to investors after “the company has paid a host of taxies,including companies income Tax Act(CITA),Educational Trust Fund(ETF) “and other taxes are paid to the federal government -including 10 per cent with holding tax on the shareholders for every dividend declared.
It stressed that”The statute of limitation provides for expiration of debts after six years.CAMA 2020 by S432 increased the limitation to 12 years.Is government by any chance taking the position that the statute of limitation is unconstitutional?
IT said that:”Government lacks the capacity to manage the funds and has demonstrated a lack of capacity to administer funds.Imagine a shareholder with an unclaimed dividend of about one thousand Naira to write /go to Abuja just to make a claim of the unpaid dividend
“The stress and bureaucratic bottleneck is too cumbersome and will not solve the unclaimed dividend palaver”,it stated
For solution ISAN asked that government should make it easier for the estate of deceased shareholders to obtain probate/administration via the courts and that banks should help in ensuring ease of executing probate/letters of administration.
