How Court Saved CEOs Of 17 Insurance Companies

The Federal High Court in Abuja has, literally, saved Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) of insurance companies the embarrassment and inconvenience of appearing before a committee of the House of Representatives.

Chief executives of 17 insurance firms were ordered to appear before the house’s Committee on Capital Market and Institutions to respond to queries over alleged non-remittance of about N98.4bn to the Federal Government.

They had been served summons earlier, but Justice Emeka Nwite, in a ruling delivered on Monday, issued a counter.

His interlocutory order restrained the Speaker of the House, the committee, and two of its members – Kwamoti Laori and Bob Solomon – from enforcing the summons earlier served on the companies.

The affected insurance companies are as follows:

1. Regency Alliance Plc,
2. Coronation Insurance Plc,
3. Linkage Assurance Plc,
4. Guinea Insurance Plc,
5. Veritas Kapital Assurance Plc,
6. LASACO Plc,
7. Universal Insurance Plc,
8. Sovereign Trust Insurance Plc,
9. Alico Insurance Plc,
10. AXA Mansard Insurance Plc,
11. Cornerstone Insurance Plc,
12. NEM Insurance Plc,
13. Mutual Benefits Assurance Plc,
14. International Energy Insurance Plc,
15. Consolidated Hallmark Insurance Plc,
16. SUNU Assurances Nigeria Plc, and
17. Staco Insurance Plc.

Though billed to appear at a scheduled hearing on July 21, 2025, they argued that their activities were already being supervised the National Insurance Commission, the Corporate Affairs Commission, and the Federal Inland Revenue Service..

Their counsel, Prof Taiwo Osipitan (SAN), argued that the National Assembly would be usurping the duties of the executive arm of government by seeking to enforce alleged debt defaults linked to them.

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They said it lacked the constitutional authority to do so,

Toyin Victoria Akioya, a manager with NIA Manager, in a supporting affidavit, argued before the high court that the summon was designed to establish and enforce liabilities allegedly owed by the companies.

Justice Nwite, in his ruling, held that the defendants failed to file any response to the insurers’ motion despite being given an opportunity to do so.

Restraining the Reps Committee from summoning the insurers’ CEOs, the court cited the failure of the Committee to respond to summons, however adjourning the case to September 9, 2025, for hearing.