Suspension lifted for BME National chair

Lara Oyedele was last month suspended as chief executive of Odu-Dua for allegedly acting outside her powers by trying to recruit board members without the board’s knowledge.

At an emergency meeting last night shareholders of Odu-Dua decided to lift Ms Oyedele’s suspension and also elected a new, interim nine-person board. Former chair John Oke, whose resignation from the board in October sparked the row, has been reinstalled as chair.

Mr Oke said: ‘Ms Oyedele had no case to answer. She has done an outstanding job heading up Odu-Dua, and played a pivotal role in the sector in her capacity as [chair of] BME National.’

Ms Oyedele was suspended last month after she began to recruit new board members. It is understood she was concerned because a number of members were close to or had exceeded a nine-year maximum stipulated in Odu-Dua’s rules. She was also concerned that the board only had six members after the initial resignation of John Oke as chair on 2 October, whereas the organisation’s rules state it should have seven.

Some of Odu-Dua’s board members felt Ms Oyedele had exceeded her powers by asking consultancy Altair to begin a recruitment process. Ms Oyedele is understood to have believed she was entitled to do this.

The interim board will manage the organisation until the Altair recruitment process is complete. Sandra Brown and Leslie Laniyan, who before last night were acting as chair and company secretary respectively, will not sit on the interim board.

BME National is a national representative body for black and minority ethnic landlords.