Corporate Criminal Liability in Nigeria

by Linus Hussein Ali

Some corporate activities, throughout the world, produce crimes, hurt and kill people, misappropriate funds, pollute minds and the environment, deceive, defraud and despoil to an extent unrivaled by conventional crimes. The forms of crimes range from corporate fraud, commercial pollution of air and water, and crimes relating to trade descriptions, food, hygiene, pensions, health and safety, and securities among others, all with their adverse effects on shareholders, individuals and the public. In relation to Nigeria, this book attempts to proffer answers to the following liability questions: what rationale, if any, exists to justify the imposition of criminal liability on corporations? Which category of officers or persons and in what circumstances should they have acted for the company in order to ground criminal liability? Which crimes do corporations commit? What appropriate sanctions can be imposed upon conviction and to what extent can these sanctions deter corporate criminality? The author establishes concrete conceptual and legal bases for corporate criminal liability in Nigeria and, given the notorious inability of regulatory agencies in Africa to rein in the excesses of commercial and industrial organisations, it concludes with an examination of the possibility of developing an effective corporate criminal liability administration in Nigeria.

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