The Obi-Datti Media Office has clarified the circumstances surrounding the liquidation of Next International (UK) Ltd, one of the companies of Labor Party presidential candidate Peter Obi.

the punch reports that, for failing to submit its annual accounts, the UK authorities canceled the company, largely owned by Obi.

The company was reportedly deregistered in September 2021, following a first and second bulletin notice of a “mandatory” strike by the entity.

In the UK, creditors or the Companies Register impose a compulsory cancellation on a company for failing to file annual accounts or for failing to notify the Companies Register of a change of official registered office.

Once a company is cancelled, its details will be removed from the House of Companies register and the company will cease to exist.

But in a statement issued on Thursday, Obi-Datti’s Head of Media Office, Diran Onifade, dismissed speculation that UK authorities have wound up the company.

Onifade explained that the owners voluntarily liquidated the firm because it was no longer in operation.

He said that “political opposition operatives uneasy about the rising high profile of the Labor Party champion” were only trying to squeeze “political capital” out of the development.

He also rebuked those who misrepresent the rest of Next International (UK) Ltd., saying: “When our director insists that you go and check the facts about him and the information he delivers, he didn’t say go and falsify the facts.”

The statement read: “For the record, the entity was 99 per cent owned by Next Nigeria International Ltd and established as its purchasing office in the 1990s and Peter Obi was its chief executive.

‘When Peter Obi became Governor of Anambra State in 2006, his wife took over management of the company’s liquidation and about a year ago requested that the company be dissolved under the entity’s voluntary strike on the grounds of dissolution and be inoperative, which is normal in the liquidation of an entity.

“Peter Obi has always maintained that he is no longer involved in any business related to Next.

“The LP candidate’s background in Anambra State for eight years, in private companies where he held his records among the platoon in this race for the Presidency, puts him miles ahead in moral rating.”