Encomium
The newly inaugurated caretaker committee of Performing Musicians Employer’s Association of Nigeria (PMAN) headed by Mr. Pretty Okafor has warned Ras Purphy Van Anthony to stop parading himself as the acting president of the association. He also called on Mr. Van Anthony and his executive to surrender all the association’s property in their possession or face the music.
This warning came following the Friday, October 31, 2014’s Federal High Court verdict, which declared Mr Van Anthony’s continuous stay in office as illegal and unconstitutional, as it contravened the provisions of Rule 8 (3) of PMAN’s Constitution of 1991 (as amended).
In the judgment, Justice O.E Abang ordered Mr. Van Anthony’s led cabinet to hand over the instrument of office and administration of PMAN to an interim caretaker committee headed by Mr Pretty Okafor. The committee comprised the following: Hariz Ibezim Oke’ilo, Baba Dee, Sunny Nneji and the multiple award winning singer, 2face Idibia, among others.
ENCOMIUM Weekly’s investigations revealed that since the judgment was handed barely two months ago, Mr. Van Anthony has not ceased to be portraying himself as acting president.
“I want to tell you authoritatively that the group claiming the leadership of the union does not have any legal bases or locus standi as they call it in law”, Mr. Pretty Okafor told ENCOMIUM Weekly in an exclusive interview, stressing that, “Therefore, they are not legitimate enough to stand against this consent judgement.”
Mr. Okafor said, “There is a judgment already that declared their activities null and void. The same court also instituted a caretaker committee. Instead of parading themselves as legitimate, I expect them to appeal the case and get that appeal granted through appropriate channels of the courts before the pronouncement can be reversed, else the order stays as we govern by the rule of law.”
The head of the caretaker committee therefore called on anybody, group or organisation in possession of any property, document, or document of title belonging to PMAN should surrender same to the committee without delay, to avoid embarrassment.
“We’ll not leave any stone unturned to recover what belongs to the association in that regard. But if they go on to appeal and reverse the order that we have, we shall obey that order accordingly because we are law abiding and peace loving people. But until such a time, we urge and invite all peace-loving and progressive PMAN members to join us to work for the union’s revival”, he concluded.
All efforts to speak with Mr Van Anthony, who came to power after the resignation of Admiral Dele Abiodun as President of PMAN on June 21, 2011, proved abortive as all his mobile numbers weren’t reachable as at the time of filing this report on Sunday, December 21, 2014.
– RASHEED ABUBAKAR
