By Favour Nnabugwu

STRONG indications have emerged that the Nigeria Police Force may grant the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), power to prosecute criminal insurance operators and other insurance offenders who violate any section of the laws regulating the sector.

The indications came on the heels of NAICOM’s prayers to the Force to grant it the fiat for private prosecution of offenders to curb the menace of prolonged delay of justice to lawbreakers.

Vanguard can confirm that NAICOM has written to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice on this issue, however, the Commission’s efforts to meet with the Inspector-General of Police is yet to yield fruits as the IGP is currently busy with security issues.

Mr. Fola Daniel, Commissioner for Insurance in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State recently stated that the commission needed the private fiat to deal expediently with criminal offenders in the insurance industry without undue delay.

He said: “People were apprehended and handed over to the Nigerian Police; we had follow ups and the response we got from the police was that they are still investigating when the investigation was open and close. But we have had a rethink over our method of operations. We discovered that we need to do more ground work.

“We have reached a decision to prosecute the culprits through private prosecutors. We are looking at using our prosecutors to prosecute the fake operators and we have applied to the Attorney General to give us fiat to carry out the exercise. With this approval our lawyers can charge somebody to court.

“We are trying to ensure that we have good working collaboration with the police. We would be expecting that the Inspector General of Police would issue instructions to all states commissioner so that when these people are arrested they would be prosecuted urgently to serve a deterrent to others.

Prosecution is simply the process of trying to prove in a court of competent jurisdiction that somebody is guilty of a crime for which he/she has been duly charged. The success or otherwise depend largely on several factors amongst which include: Cooperation from person/institutions who should furnish relevant information; the quality of evidence gathered at the investigation stage; the transparency of investigation of the case itself; the prosecutorial competences of the prosecuting counsel; the transparency and fairness of the presiding judge in the trail and gaps in the law guiding law guiding prosecution, amongst others but  private prosecution is a criminal proceeding initiated by private organisation or an individual instead of a public prosecutor who represents the state.

However, Vanguard investigations from the Nigerian Police revealed that the NAICOM could well be granted the fiat to prosecute but the matter must first be reported to the police who would in turn carry our thorough investigations on the issue after which the insurance regulatory could go ahead and prosecute operators based on police investigations and report.

Further findings by Vanguard from the Nigerian Police showed that the there are constraints faced during investigations which stretched the process unduly

An officer who spoke to Vanguard said “The police is continually frustrated in several fronts, sometimes even from quarters that one expect to get  maximum support and cooperation and we have to keep pushing until we get to the root. Again, no investigation can be thorough or any incriminating evidence to sustain a charge can be obtained within such a short time”