By Eugene Onyeji
The National Pension Commission (PenCom) said on Monday that the long running crisis that engulfed the First Guarantee Pension Limited (FGPL), which resulted in the appointment of an Interim Management Committee (IMC), to superintend over the affairs of the PFA has been resolved.
PenCom said it was, therefore, informing stakeholders in the Nigerian pension industry and the general public that its regulatory intervention in FGPL was over.
A statement by the PenCom on Monday said that the intervention was undertaken in August 2011 based on the findings of the routine and special examinations carried out by the Commission.
According to the statement, the conclusion of the intervention was as a result of the judgment delivered by the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division on Thursday, April 30, 2020, in the three appeals filed by the Commission, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the PFA, against the judgment of the Federal High Court that nullified the Commission’s regulatory measures.
It added that the Court of Appeal’s decision upheld the appeals, thereby setting aside the judgment of the Federal High Court in its entirety. Thus, the judgment of the Court of Appeal validates the regulatory actions taken by the Commission in 2011.
“Accordingly, the Commission has handed the PFA over to its reconstituted Board of Directors under the chairmanship of Kashim Ibrahim Imam with Tsegba Terngu, Ahmed Salik, Pat Asadu, and George I. Ozodinobi as members.
“Concurrently, the Commission has dissolved the Interim Management Committee it appointed on 12 August, 2011.
“The Commission would like to use this medium to assure all clients of the PFA that the company has been returned to normality. The Commission further reassures pension contributors and the general public that it is alive to its responsibility of ensuring the safety of the pension industry at all times,” it said.
The crisis started when PenCom, the industry regulator, which on February 23, 2011, released its annual report which categorised FGPL as the most improved PFA in 2010, surprisingly, one month later, on March 22, 2011 wrote the board of FGPL that it would like to undertake a target examination of the company.
The target examination report PenCom presented to the board in June 2011 was critical of the way the company was being run, asserting, among other issues, that the chairman should not have occupied the post because he had insignificant shares.
But the FGPL board reasoned that the chairman, who had well over N20 million worth of shares, could not be said to be a chairman with insignificant shares, more so since the company’s article and memorandum of association didn’t provide for a share qualification to even be on the board.
FGPL questioned the report and brought to the attention of PenCom that under the Pension Reform Act, such a report from the regulator will be submitted to the directors, and the directors were bound under the law to submit the report to the shareholders, whose responsibility it is to vote on it and whatever is the outcome of such a vote becomes the decision of the company.
It was PenCom’s inability to accede to the request of FGPL that led to the flurry of litigation.
On August 11, 2011, Justice D.U. Okorowo of the Federal High Court, Abuja issued an ex-parte order restraining PenCom from implementing the target report pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.
PenCom demurred and on August 15, 2011, dissolved the board of FGPL and appointed an interim management.
On June 18, 2012, Justice Okorowo finally ruled on the matter. In a 132-page judgment, the judge took umbrage at PenCom for acting above the law and ordered that the interim management be removed.
But the judgement was observed in the breach until it was vacated by the Appeal Court on April 30.
Below is the statement from Pencom which was sent to TheNiche: