Some retirees in Lagos State have said they have not been paid their pensions for about six months by the African Alliance Insurance Plc.
According to them, the insurance firm has not been reachable for months.
Saturday PUNCH reported on September 7 that the pensioners haven’t paid their pensions since January 2024.
Meanwhile, the National Insurance Commission has directed the insurance company to settle all outstanding customers’ claims and submit a turnaround plan for addressing their challenges.
In August, the insurance company’s Executive Director (Technical), Wasiu Amao, said the firm was working on the turnaround plan as directed by the NIC.
Recently, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, stated that the commission would intensify its focus on monitoring activities within Nigeria’s insurance industry over issues of fraud.
Speaking with Saturday PUNCH, a retiree, Omotayo Clement, who retired from the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, said he couldn’t afford to treat his ailing wife because his benefits had not been paid.
“I have been expecting them (African Alliance Insurance) to pay for more than six months now. We don’t have any reasons why they have not paid. Maybe they thought we had died,” Clement lamented.
Another retiree from the Lagos State Ministry of Works and Infrastructure, Solomon Oyedele, said things had been tough for him.
“The insurance company has not paid us for months; there is nothing we’re enjoying at the moment. There are a lot of us who are suffering and the government hasn’t said anything about it till now. We are just tired,” he stated.
However, all efforts by our correspondent to get the African Alliance Insurance Plc to speak on the matter proved abortive. Calls put across to the company were neither answered nor returned.
Also, emails and text messages sent were not responded to as of the time of filing this report.
The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Gbenga Omotoso, had not also responded to calls and messages from Saturday PUNCH as of press time.
Credit: PUNCH