‘’Bodyguard’’, ‘’Investigation’’ And Other Offensive Clauses That Should Not Feature In The Memorandum Of Association Of Security Guard Companies.

#OBSCURELEGALFACTS BY AROME ABU

In Nigeria, the Corporate Affairs Commission has the general responsibility to register business entities. Similarly, there are other government agencies and parastatals that have particular responsibilities to regulate and licence specific business entities.

For instance, the Corporate Affairs Commission has the general responsibility to register Commercial and other kinds of Banks, but the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has a specific duty to regulate and licence them (See Section 1,2 and 3 of the BOFIA). In like manner, the Corporate Affairs Commission has the general responsibility to register Private Guard Companies (See Section 1 of the PGC Act), while the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps has the specific duty to regulate and licence them ( See Section 3 (d) of the NSCDC Act).

These offensive clauses may be initially accepted by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) but subsequently rejected by the specific licensing body, thereby necessitating a premature alteration in the object of the memorandum of Association. Most times, Solicitors find this discovery irritating, as it will entail extra cost at their expense (owing to lack of dexterity and diligence) as well as loss of time.

These offensive clauses which every attorney must avoid while registering Private Security Guard Companies are as follows:

(1) Training of Security personnel (replace with Security skill development)

(2) Bullet proof vest.

(3) Investigation (replace with surveillance)

(4) Words denoting Arms and ammunition (replace with batons)

(5) Undercover.

(6) Bodyguard.

(7) Detective

(8) Amoured Vehicle

(9) VIP protection.

OTHERS CONSIDERATIONS

• Foreigners as Directors or Shareholders, prohibited.
• Nigerians who are working in the Public Sector are prohibited from owning Private Guard Companies while in service.
• At least, one of the Directors/Shareholder must be a Retired officer of the Military or Paramilitary organisations.
• Directors must not have been found guilty of any criminal offence.
• Directors must not have been discharged or otherwise removed on disciplinary grounds from the Police, Prison Service, Custom service, Immigration Service or any Armed forces of the Federation.
• Minimum share capital of a Security Guard Company must be 10,000,000.00.

Note, that modifications may be made by the NSCDC after this publication, hence solicitors are encouraged to send their proposed business object for Security Guard Companies to the NSCDC for vetting before carrying out registration.

AROME ABU IS THE PRINCIPAL PARTNER OF TCLP.

CAVEAT: Note that this information is provided for general enlightenment purposes and is not intended to be any form of legal advice.

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