NICON CRISIS: NO SETTLEMENT OUT OF COURT DEAL - MINISTER

Controversy over the ownership of NICON Insurance has deepened with the Minister of State for Finance, Mr. Remi Babalola, denying claims that President Umaru Yar’Adua had ordered an out-of-court settlement with the former Group Managing Director of the company, Mr. Jimoh Ibrahim.

His comments fueled speculations that the feud between the two parties might linger for a little while before a resolution is found.

The minister denied ever receiving such a directive from the President in an exclusive interview with our correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday, just as he said that the insurance sector had a positive outlook.

“There is nothing like the President has ordered that go and give it (NICON Insurance) to somebody and you said no. Not at all,” Babalola said.

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He said the idea that the President would give an order and a minister would stall it was inconceivable.

“It is not possible for the Commander-in-Chief to give an order and you refuse to carry it. What the President asked us to do is what we are doing. Whoever has any ulterior motive and was disseminating those documents, I want to say no amount of blackmail will take us away from our resolve to do the right thing all the time,” he added.

He said that the President only said that due process must be followed in the matter.

NICON Insurance, a firm in which Ibrahim controls 51 per cent stake, had its board sacked last year by the government.

But, Ibrahim, who lost his position as the Group Managing Director of the firm, had since taken the matter to court.

“The books of the insurance firm were in a bad shape. This is what the government is trying to correct,” a source in the Ministry of Finance, who preferred not to be quoted told our correspondents.