Lagos – If adequate information is provided on the vehicles that were involved in petrol tanker explosion which occurred on Otedola Bridge, along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) may invoke the Insurance Act 2003 by paying insurance compensation to the victims, Daily Independent can authoritatively reveal.
The tanker explosion killed 12 people and burnt 54 vehicles.
Unconfirmed report has it that the truck that caused the disaster had no insurance cover and if this is established, then the insurance regulator may pay compensation to victims from its ‘Hit and Run Trust Fund’ managed by the commission.
Also Daily Independent gathered that the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) has opened a complaint register for members of families of the victims to document their complaint. On the vehicles destroyed in the explosion, the agency has requested the vehicle owners or their families to tender original vehicle documents to authenticate their ownership.
Although the commission is yet to have an official report on the incident, according to our source, indications are that the insurance regulator may from the special fund pay yet-to-be specified monies as compensation to the victims.
Analysts’ views are, however, that the situation needs a proper coordination of data relating to the incident by the various authorities if the National Insurance Commission must act.
Mr. Rasaaq Salami, NAICOM’s Deputy Director, Corporate Affairs, when contacted by Daily Independent, said the commission was yet to have an official report on the incident.
He said until there is an official report of the explosion and accurate data to back claims, there wasn’t anything the commission could do, adding that the commission does not believe in rumours.
Mr. Salami, though, did not want to disclose what the commission would do in the event that they have a formal report of the incident, he said that the commission, for now, believes that all the vehicles involved including the tanker were properly insured.
He said: “You say rumour, we don’t work with rumour. We want to believe that the tanker and every other car that was in the accident was properly insured. We want to believe that. We have not received any formal report concerning that incident but when they do we will get there, we will know what to do but right now we believe that both the tanker and other cars involved were duly insured”, Salami noted.
In the same vein, Mr. Sola Tinubu, the Managing Director, Scib Nigeria & Co Limited, one of the leading insurance brokers in the industry, who is also the President, Nigerian Council of Registered Insurance Brokers (NCRIB), disclosed in Lagos that there is a special fund manned by the NAICOM for compensation of accident victims.
“This is of national consequence, I think all of us need to play the role and push the issues forward; maybe we can get the attention of government and other stakeholders including insurance to also play their part. The issue of the uninsured accident, there is a fund that is actually with the National Insurance Commission for payment of uninsured losses.
“So what would happen is that when the extent of the losses is established NAICOM should be able to process that for claims payment”, said the Scib boss.
Mr. Solanke Ogunlana, the Executive Director (Technical), Scib Nigeria & Co Limited, noted that the insurance cost of the accident could not be determined given the fact that there is no data yet to authenticate the actual liability of the inferno.
Ogunlana added that the issue needs a proper coordination of data by the various authorities statutorily in position to make available reports concerning the explosion and the liabilities incurred.
It would be recalled that a tanker truck loaded with premium motor spirit known as petrol had a brake failure and exploded on Otedola Bridge in Lagos on Thursday, June 28.
The post Otedola Bridge Explosion: How Victims Can Get Compensation appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
Source: Daily Independent
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Title :
Otedola Bridge Explosion: How Victims Can Get Compensation
Description : Lagos – If adequate information is provided on the vehicles that were involved in petrol tanker explosion which occurred on Otedola Bridge...
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