A group of customers and policy stakeholders have written a petition to the House of Representatives on Committee on Public Petitions against Standard Insurance Company Plc and Standard Alliance Life Assurance as well as its Directors for refusal to pay claims to annuitants who have secured pension policy with it.
Penpushing reports that the petition was forwarded to the lawmakers by Buttonwood and Greene, Legal Practitioners, Solicitors, Consultants and Arbitrators on behalf of the complainants calling on the committee to invoke powers under sections 88 and 89 of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended in 2023) with respect to the above stated matter
‘We represent the interest of some customers/policy holders of Standard Alliance Company Plc. Standard Alliance whose former name was Jubilee Insurance was incorporated in July 1981 and the name was changed in August 1981 and it became a public company quoted in the Nigerian Stock Exchange on the 30th of May, 2002’, the petition reads.
‘The travails of the policy holders/beneficiaries started when the company started failing in its obligations to policy holders and beneficiaries when it could not afford to pay at the maturity of their policies and refusal to pay claims to annuitants who have secured pension policy with it’, it added.
‘As stated above Standard Alliance Life Assurance is a subsidiary of Standard Alliance Insurance Plc. As far back as year 2019 policy holders stated to report the company staff and management to various Zonal Offices of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the situation persisted for over three years before the Nigeria Insurance Commission (NAICOM) revoked the license of the company in June, 2022’.
The Company went to court in July 2023 and the Federal High Court sitting in Lagos nullified the revocation. Since after the revocation, the beneficiaries have remained confused as nothing seems to be coming out from the company despite the promise to pay. But it is our believe that the company was using the court case and other methods to delay liquidation so that the directors can strip the company if its useful assets’.
‘We urge this hallowed chamber to use its position as the ultimate lawmakers and overseer of insurance industry regulators to intervene and remedy the situation, even if it means removing the veil some directors are wearing to see who they are fronting for’, the petition added.
‘The intervention and assistance of this hallowed chambers becomes necessary because the regulatory bodies have been found wanting. NAICOM came in too late, while Securities Exchange Commission and the Nigerian Stock Exchange have refused to act (or we have no evidence of their acting) as the company is quoted at the Nigerian Stock Exchange and it is supposed to be submitting its report to these agencies’.
‘Failure to remedy the situation will do more damage to the reputation of the insurance industry in Nigeria (which is still at the developmental stage) as the public will lose interest and confidence in the industry and all the money that is being spent to increase awareness in the insurance industry would have gone down the drain’.
‘Also, your intervention is crucial so that swindlers and financial con artist wearing the garb of company promoters will not go away with the hard-earned money of the beneficiaries’, the complainants emphasised.
Penpushing further reports that the petition signed by Samson Isichei, Principal Partner, said copies of discharge vouchers for some of those whose policy had matured before the crisis started and documents showing some customers whose policy have become inchoate due to the instability in the company are attached.
The copies of the petition were forwarded to Commissioner for Insurance, National Insurance Commission, Director Banking Services, Central Bank of Nigeria, Director General Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Director General, Nigerian Stock Exchange, Nigerian Insurance Association and Executive Chairman Economic and Financial Crimes Commission
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