Accounts filed 22 November 2007 read "signed on their behalf by: Peter Obi, Director"; File 02 sets four governorship filings against the Constitution

On 22 November 2007 a small London company, Next International (UK) Limited, delivered its accounts for 2006 to Companies House, the UK register of companies. The balance sheet ends: "Approved by the board on 22 November 2007 / And signed on their behalf by: / Peter Obi, Director". Peter Obi had first taken the oath as Governor of Anambra State 615 days earlier, on 17 March 2006, and the Supreme Court had restored him to office 161 days earlier. That filing is one of four from his governorship that The Obi Files, File 02 of Vero Record's dossiers, published today, sets against the Constitution's rule that a full-time public officer may not "engage or participate in the management or running of any private business". On the record, the company told the registry for about twenty-six months of his governorship that Obi was its director. The record does not show that he ran it, and parts of it point the other way.

The rule is in the Fifth Schedule to the Constitution, Part I, paragraph 2: a public officer shall not, "(b) except where he is not employed on full-time basis, engage or participate in the management or running of any private business, profession or trade but nothing in this sub-paragraph shall prevent a public officer from engaging in farming." Part II of the same schedule lists "Governors and Deputy Governors of States" among the officers the Code binds. Paragraph 13 adds that an officer who does a prohibited act "through a nominee, trustee, or other agent" is deemed to have breached the Code. The test is taking part in management or running. A name on a register, or one share, is evidence on that question; it does not answer it (File 02, Part 237).

The company, number 03199858, was formed in London on 16 May 1996 with Obi as its director (Part 129). Its returns give 999 of its 1,000 shares to Next International (Nigeria) Ltd of 98 Modebe Avenue, Onitsha (printed "OMITSHA"), and one to "PETER OBI" of 14 Oman Avenue, London. Its secretaries were an agents' firm, Centrum Secretaries Limited, and Margaret Peter Obi, and its registered office was the agents' address at 788-790 Finchley Road. Vero Record read each filing below from the page images on the public register, saved for File 02 on 13 October 2026.

The first return after he took office is a form 363a made up to 16 May 2006, sixty days after the oath. It was "Received for filing in Electronic Format on the: 03/07/2006" and entered on the register on 4 July 2006. Under "Details of Officers of the Company" it names one director, "Director 1: GREGORY PETER ONWUBUASI OBI", occupation "OVERSEAS CO REPRESENTATIVE", and goes straight on to the share capital. There is no second director. The same return lists "PETER OBI" as the holder of one share. It was authorised by "SECRETARY" on 03/07/2006, not by Obi (Part 137).

Five months into the governorship the board changed. A form 288a, stamped as received by Companies House on 26 September 2006 and entered on the register on 2 October 2006, appoints "JOSEPHAT NDIBE OBI" a director from 21 August 2006, with the business occupation "CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER" and a consent signature dated 22/09/06. The filings do not say how he is related to Peter Obi. From that date the register showed two directors, and Peter Obi was still one of them (Part 138).

The return made up to 16 May 2007 was received on 20 June 2007. It lists "Director 1" as Gregory Peter Onwubuasi Obi, with the same occupation, and "Director 2" as Josephat Ndibe Obi, "CHIEF OPERATION OFFICE". "PETER OBI" again appears with "1 ORDINARY Shares held as at 16/05/2007", beside 999 for Next International (Nigeria). It was authorised by "SECRETARY" on 20/06/2007. The dates around it are crowded. The House of Assembly announced Obi's removal on 2 November 2006, and the Court of Appeal upheld his reinstatement on 9 February 2007; Andy Uba was sworn in on 29 May 2007; on 14 June 2007 the Supreme Court ordered Uba out and restored Obi (Parts 3, 4 and 9). The return was filed six days later (Part 140).

The accounts for 2006 followed on 22 November 2007. Page 2 states that "The directors acknowledge their responsibility for" keeping accounting records and "preparing accounts which give a true and fair view", and then: "Approved by the board on 22 November 2007 / And signed on their behalf by: / Peter Obi, Director". The next line reads: "This document was delivered using electronic communications and authenticated in accordance with section 707B(2) of the Companies Act 1985." It is the only filing from the governorship years that presents Obi as acting for the company, and File 02 treats it as the strongest single record against his account (Part 142). Vero Record first reported this filing on 1 October.

The directorship ended on the yearly filing cycle. Form 288b, "Received for filing in Electronic Format on the: 16/06/2008", gives "Position: DIRECTOR", "Date of resignation: 16/05/2008" and the name Gregory Peter Onwubuasi Obi, authorised by "secretary" on 16/06/2008, thirty-one days after the date it declares (Part 144). The return received the next day, 17 June 2008, lists Josephat Ndibe Obi as the only director and still lists "PETER OBI" with one share (Part 145). From 17 March 2006 to 16 May 2008 is 791 days, about twenty-six months. Taking out the 99 days between the announced removal and the Court of Appeal's ruling, and the 16 days of Andy Uba's tenure, leaves 676 days, about twenty-two months. The figure of "14 months" printed in press reports since 2021 fits neither count (Part 220).

Much in the same file supports Obi. Every return, and the resignation itself, was authorised by the secretary, not by him. The November 2007 accounts carry a typed name authenticated electronically, not a signature, and File 02 notes that an agent preparing them for a company whose register still showed him as a director could simply have typed that director's name (Part 142). The company put a full-time chief operating officer on its board five months after he took office, which is what a handover would look like on paper. On File 02's lay comparison of handwriting, graded C, the accounts approved in October 2006 carry a director's signature unlike Obi's earlier ones, and from October 2008 the accounts were signed by Josephat Obi; no handwritten signature on the company's filings after October 2005 appears to be Peter Obi's (Parts 139 and 148). From 2010 the company was in effect dormant, its only asset a fixed debtor of £33,176 (Part 150).

Obi has said he left when he took office. Premium Times reported in October 2021 that he "resigned immediately" by handing his wife a letter of resignation, and that he suggested the company might have been slow to record it. On ARISE that month, in The Authority's transcription, he said he phoned his companies "to say I have resigned" (Part 232). The declared resignation date, 16 May, is the date to which every annual return was made up, which fits a departure recorded late on the filing cycle rather than a date chosen for its own sake (Part 144, graded C). The register can neither confirm nor rule out an earlier resignation that the company did not file.

What the record sets against that account is the company's own paperwork. In the eight filings it made between July 2006 and November 2007, one of them appointing a new director, none recorded a departure by Obi, and the last of them presented the accounts as approved by him. That does not show that he approved them. Whether he did, or saw them, could be settled only by documents that have not been published: the company's board minutes, the letter Obi says he gave his wife, the agents' instructions for the November 2007 filing and the company's bank mandates for 2006 to 2009 (Part 187).

No court, tribunal or the Code of Conduct Bureau has found that Obi took part in managing the company while he was governor, and File 02 found no public record of a charge before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on the point (Part 248). Premium Times' 2021 headline, "how he broke the law", was the newspaper's own conclusion, not a ruling. Vero Record sent requests for comment to Obi repeatedly from September 2026, including a request for the resignation letter. None had been answered by publication.

What this rests on

Companies House filings for Next International (UK) Limited, company 03199858, read from the page images saved for File 02 on 13 October 2026: form 363a annual return made up to 16 May 2006, received 03/07/2006, registered 4 July 2006 (pp.1-2); form 288a appointing Josephat Ndibe Obi from 21/08/2006, stamped received 26/09/2006, registered 2 October 2006 (p.1); form 363a made up to 16 May 2007, received 20/06/2007 (pp.1-3); abbreviated accounts to 31 December 2006, received 22 November 2007 (p.2); form 288b received 16/06/2008 (p.1); form 363a made up to 16 May 2008, received 17/06/2008, registered 18 June 2008 (pp.1-3); filing history pages 2 and 3. Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended), PLAC edition, Fifth Schedule, Part I, paragraph 2 (printed p.252, PDF p.258) and paragraph 13 (printed p.255, PDF p.261), Part II item 4 (printed p.259, PDF p.265). Dates of office from The Obi Files, Parts 1, 3, 4 and 9. Arithmetic re-done: shares 999 + 1 = 1,000; 17 March 2006 to 16 May 2006 = 60 days; to 21 August 2006 = 157 days (about five months); to 22 November 2007 = 615 days; 14 June 2007 to 20 June 2007 = 6 days; 14 June 2007 to 22 November 2007 = 161 days; 16 May 2008 to 16 June 2008 = 31 days; 17 March 2006 to 16 May 2008 = 791 days (about 26 months); 2 November 2006 to 9 February 2007 = 99 days and 29 May 2007 to 14 June 2007 = 16 days, so 791 - 99 - 16 = 676 days (about 22 months). Filings on the register from July 2006 to November 2007: 363a and 190 (4 July 2006), 288a (2 October 2006), accounts (6 November 2006), 363a and two 288c (20 June 2007), accounts (22 November 2007) = 2 + 1 + 1 + 3 + 1 = 8. The dormancy figure of £33,176 and the signature comparison are taken from File 02 (Parts 139, 148 and 150) and were not re-done for this report.

What this does not establish

That Peter Obi personally approved, signed, saw or submitted the 2006 accounts filed on 22 November 2007; the name is typed, the filing was authenticated electronically, and the record does not show who keyed it. That he took part in the management or running of the company at any time after 17 March 2006. Whether he resigned earlier by letter or telephone, as he has said; no letter, board minute, agents' instruction or bank mandate has been published. Who signed for the company as a director on the form of 22 September 2006 and on the accounts approved in October 2006; File 02's handwriting comparison is a lay one, graded C. How Josephat Ndibe Obi is related to Peter Obi. What the company traded in, who its debtors and creditors were, and whether the directorship or the share appeared in Obi's declarations to the Code of Conduct Bureau, which are not public. No court, tribunal or the Bureau has ruled on any of this. The Bureau's website lists a civil appeal, CA/AWK/309 CCB v. Mr Peter Obi & 2 Ors, whose subject is unknown; nothing connects it to this company (Part 247). Nothing in this report suggests a crime.