NIGERIA: Court Strikes out Criminal Charges against NAICOM Boss

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A Federal High Court in Lagos has struck out a criminal charge filed by the federal government against Commissioner for Insurance and Chief Executive Officer of the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), Fola Daniel.

Daniel was charged before Justice Okon Abang over an alleged misrepresentation of facts involving Alliance and General Insurance Limited.

Justice Abang had struck out the charge following an application for withdrawal of the case filed by the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation (DPPF) on behalf of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF), Mohammed Bello Adoke (SAN).

The application was based on the constitutional powers vested on the AGF to institute and to discontinue criminal cases.

Daniel was charged to court on a six-count charge bordering on criminal misrepresentation of facts and deliberate falsehood.

A private prosecutor, Chijioke Ndubuisi, had filed the motion together with a six-count charge against Daniel at the court and subsequently wrote for a fiat of the AGF.

The AGF declined the fiat but instead elected to do the prosecution.

In the said charge accompanying Ndubuisi’s motion, it was alleged that Daniel deliberately made a number of misleading and malicious misrepresentations against an insurance company, Alliance and General Insurance Limited to a number of public officers and agencies with the intention of damaging the reputation of the said insurance company.

It was further alleged that Daniel committed the same offences against Fidelity Bond Group, by representing that the Group had infracted the Insurance Act of 1997.

A part of the six-count charge against Daniel stated that he “did present information to the Minister of Aviation that there is no subsisting court order against the commissioner prohibiting the commission from enforcing its regulatory functions, which information you (Daniel) knew to be false in any material particulars and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 89 (1) and (2) of the Insurance Act, 2003.

“That you Fola Daniel on or about 7th August 2012, whilst being in the employment of the National Insurance Commission knowingly informed the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC) that Fidelity Bond Group and A&G Insurance Plc had been prohibited from doing business, the information which you know to be false and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 89 (1) and (2) of the Insurance Act and punishable under section 89 (2).”