Insurance

Chairman of insurance firm returns N66m looted fund

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From left: Commissioner for Insurance, Mohammed Kari and Director Administration and Human Resources Directorate, NAICOM, Adamu Balanti at the event.

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Chuks Udo Okonta

The National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) campaign against corruption, seems to be yielding positive results as a chairman of an insurance company has been forced to return N66 million he looted from the firm.

Although, the name of the concerned chairman could not be ascertained as at the time of writing this report, there are indications that the affected chairman could be one of the past chairmen of the insurance companies under regulatory intervention.

The Commissioner for Insurance Mohammed Kari, who disclosed this today at the ongoing annual seminar for finance and insurance correspondents in Gombe, Gombe State, noted that all the parties that engaged in corrupt practices would be reported to anti- graft agencies for prosecution.

Kari maintained that some shareholders who looted shares to themselves without paying for them have also been dragged to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).

On the probe of some Insurance firms and Government’s Ministries, Departments and Agencies, by the Federal House of Representatives, he said the commission is collaborating with the Legislators to ensure government’s insurances are properly undertaken.

He lauded the efforts taken by the legislators, adding that the result would help restore public confidence on insurance.

Kari stressed that the probe would also help to ensure that government’s insurance budgetary provisions are properly utilized. He noted that with the probe, premium budget for next year would be properly channeled.

Recall that the interim management board of Goldlink Insurance Plc, set up by NAICOM, in a share capital audit that looked into the activities of the former management, observed that about 2.5 billion shares were inappropriately issued to selected shareholders without considerations into the company.

“To support the creation of these bubble shares, the Head Office Building and other assets were revalued and inflated by about N1.5 billion. The revaluation surplus was used in part to create these shares against sound accounting standards and principles. Currently, the interim management board has recovered 1.2 billion shares through voluntary surrender and about 134 million shares by way of forfeiture,” it report stated.

It was also discovered that about 1.2 billion share unit were disposed of by some of the beneficiaries, and that the interim management board has commenced the process of recovering the disposed shares and associated dividends of about N125 million.

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