‘Over 1000 police families to receive compensation soon’

By Omobola Tolu-Kusimo

Over 1,000 families of Nigerian police officers and men who died or sustained injury during active service between 2012 and last year will soon receive adequate compensation, The Nation has learnt.

The victims are those who were not covered as a result of the non-payment of insurance premium on the Group Life Assurance Scheme of Federal Government workers to insurers following the enforcement of ‘No premium, no cover’ policy by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) in the insurance industry.

Assistant Commissioner of Police and Head Insurance Department, Nigeria Police Force, Kayode Turner disclosed this in an interview with The Nation.

He said the Inspector-General of Police Mohammed Abubakar had been working with the Budget Office to pay the affected families.

He said following the enforcement of the ‘No premium, no cover’ policy’by NAICOM, the money to be paid to the families cannot be termed as insurance claims any longer but compensation because no premium was paid to the insurers.

Turner assured that going forward, premium on police Group Life Assurance Scheme will be paid up front.

He noted that the police presently have insurance cover running for the year, as insurance premium has been fully paid.

He believes premium should not be tied to quarterly allocation of the budget releases.

He however stated that NAICOM ought to give a special concession to the police and other security forces in paying their premium owing to the nature of their job and the time when the Federal Government budget allocation is released, knowing full well that premiums are paid from the budget which comes every January after most of these polices may have been due.

workers in Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), such as the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Federal Ministry of Education, and Federal Ministry of Justice, Federal Ministry of Power, among others, who die in active service are not eligible to get compensation.

The Pension Reform Act states in Section 9(3) that employers shall maintain life insurance policy in favour of their employees for a minimum of three times the annual total emolument of the employee.




Source: The Nation