A Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday restrained the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) from going ahead with plans to sack the current management of Alliance and General Insurance (A&G) Plc.
The presiding judge, Justice Pat Ajoku, in a ruling on an ex-parte motion filed by A&G also restrained NAICOM from implementing a directive which suspended the insurance company from transacting insurance business in Nigeria for the next six months with effect from August 6, 2012.
The judge, who made the order after entertaining argument from the lawyer to the plaintiff (Alliance and General Insurance Plc), Ayodele Akintunde, specifically barred insurance commission from either sacking the management of the company or appointing new directors to assume control and management of the company.
Justice Ajoku ordered NAICOM to remove forthwith from its website, information regarding the suspension of the plaintiff from transacting insurance business in Nigeria for the next six months as well as further publishing same in the national newspapers.
The judge equally restrained the Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and her Ministry from either approving the removal of directors and management of Alliance Insurance or ratifying the appointment of new directors and management to assume control over the company.
The orders, according to Justice Ajoku, are to remain in force pending the determination of a motion on notice filed by the plaintiff against the respondents which include NAICOM, Ministry of Finance, Minister of Finance and the Attorney General of the Federation, Bello Adoke (SAN).
The judge, however, ordered the plaintiff to sign an undertaking to pay damages to the respondents should it later turn out that the orders ought not to have been granted.
The judge also granted leave to the plaintiff to serve some of the respondents outside jurisdiction with the processes filed in the matter, and fixed August 22, 2012. For hearing, while also ordering that hearing notices should be served on all the respondents.
Akintunde had, while arguing the motion, told Justice Ajoku that the faith of Alliance Insurance would be jeopardized should the respondents not be restrained from going ahead with the implementation of the suspension directive.
He said NAICOM was acting on a ‘devastating’ recommendation of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria on the state of finance of Alliance Insurance which alleged that the company had failed to comply with best accounting practice in its dealings.
Akintunde said while his client had already filed a suit to challenge the said recommendation of the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria on its books, NAICOM in furtherance of the recommendation, suspended Alliance Insurance from transacting insurance business in Nigeria for the next six months, and was also bent on further suspending the management of the company
While stating that insurance business was a very sensitive one, Akintunde stressed that the whole scenario was a script carefully written to finish his client, and urged the court not to allow it.
He said if the respondents were not restrained from implementing their threats, over 900 staff and hundreds of policy holders with Alliance Insurance would suffer if the company eventually seizes to exist by the virtue of the threat.
