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Nigeria: IGI Drags FG to Court Over NICON
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Leadership (Abuja)
14 May 2008
Posted to the web 14 May 2008
Abuja
Industrial and General Insurance (IGI), Company Ltd., yesterday asked the Federal High Court Abuja to set aside the sale of NICON Insurance to the preferred bidder, Mr Jimoh Ibrahim.
IGI also asked the court not to give effect to the Terms of Settlement reached between the government and Ibrahim on the return of NICON to the core investor.
In the suit filed by IGI's counsels, Prof. Abiodun Adesanya (SAN) and Mr. Kola Awodein (SAN), the plaintiff contended that the purported sale of 70 per cent equity of NICON to Ibrahim was unlawful, null and void.
A copy of the court processes was made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja yesterday.
According to the plaintiff, Section 1 of the 1999 Privatisation Act recommends that only 40 per cent equity of NICON should be sold to strategic investors.
The percentage, IGI said, was increased to 51 per cent by BPE (Privatisation and Commercialisation) Order 2004.
The plaintiff contended that contrary to the two statutory provisions 70 per cent of the equity of NICON was sold to Ibrahim.
"When questioned, the reply of the BPE was that there was a resolution of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) for the increase," the plaintiff submitted.
IGI urged the court to declare that "a resolution of NCP on privatisation is not coterminous with the official gazette of the federal government".
The plaintiff is also seeking the court's declaration that Assurance Acquisition Ltd., used by Ibrahim in buying NICON was merely a front and was not qualified in the sale exercise.
IGI alleged that Assurance Acquisition was incorporated after the Aug. 1, 2005 deadline for execution of "Liability Aversion Agreement and Non-Disclosure Agreement".
"Before a company would be regarded as a lawful bidder it must execute the statutory agreements.
"Assurance Acquisition did not and could not have executed the Agreements since it was incorporated only on Aug. 26, 2005, (25 days after the deadline)," the plaintiff said.
The plaintiff further said that Assurance Acquisition did not meet the pre-qualification condition for bidding which states that investors must possess evidence of technical, managerial and financial capabilities.
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"The process of the selection of Assurance Acquisition, its purported vetting as bidder, and the purported sale of NICON to it was in bad faith, reckless and unlawful," the plaintiff argued.(NAN)
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