On July 22, Nwosu Obinna Adolphus, a former insurance agent of the American International Insurance Company (AIICO), reported fraudulent activities including the omission of insurance holder payments for extended periods and the refusal to close their accounts.
In the email sent to FIJ, some media houses and civil society organisations, Adolphus said that AIICO erased evidence of digital transactions with customers from their portals, refused to pay them their benefits and blacklisted him as a fraudulent agent but refused to appear in court concerning the matter.
Adolphus was arrested and detained at FESTAC police station by an aggrieved customer on Wednesday. He was transferred to CID Panti on Monday.
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HOW IT STARTED
Nwosu Obinna Adolphus started working with the AIICO on May 21, 2017, as an insurance policy agent. His role was to solicit, procure and transmit applications for insurance and annuities in the company. He would also collect and receive premiums due to AIICO and pay over the same as directed by the company, all subject to the terms and conditions in the agreement between him and the company.
In simple terms, Adolphus was contracted to convince people to buy insurance policies from AIICO and retrieve their premiums to the company.
Adolphus did this job for over seven years, earning a status as a top agent, having persuaded hundreds of customers to own insurance policies with AIICO.
“I was the star agent for my agency, top ten in the entire Amuwo branch, Lagos,” he told FIJ.
Endurance Ugwoke (not real name), a customer and friend of Adolphus who spoke to FIJ, spoke of Adolphus’ marketing resilience and persuasion when it came to insurance advocacy.
Adolphus also procured for himself up to eight life insurance policies with AIICO which amounted to N8 million. This arrangement went on smoothly until May 2024.
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MAY/JUNE 2024, AIICO’S ALTERATIONS BEGIN
Adolphus said that AIICO began to indiscriminately alter customers’ account statements and transaction evidence went missing from their portals between May and June 2024. The company claimed that some cashiers and employees had mismanaged funds and began to omit customer payments arbitrarily.
“The company’s official portal which is supposed to be sacred and monitored by NAICOM, to my greatest surprise, was compromised by AIICO,” Adolphus said.
AIICO proceeded to hold agents responsible for these omissions and, on Adolphus’ part, claimed that no payments were made by his clients for certain years despite having acknowledged these payments when they were made, with receipts.
“Receipts already issued were erased from the portal, payment histories were tainted and my commissions statements adulterated and later completely wiped off the system,” Adolphus reported.
AIICO sent Adolphus emails asking him to provide evidence of up to 13 payments of a customer’s premium for which he had received payment confirmations and receipt from them (AIICO). The customer had also received payment confirmation.
(Receipts of the wiped transactions of a customer, Onyekwere, above)
In addition, even after providing payment receipts, AIICO requested bank statements and proof of payments from customers’ accounts to the company’s account, despite the fact that the majority of his customers were market women and traders who paid in cash. AIICO’s policies and regulations do not forbid customers from paying in cash.
Adolphus had also received his commissions as at when due for each payment. According to Adolphus, every commission paid to him since May 2017 always got a 5% deduction for tax and another 5% deduction for pension before the remainder was paid to him. He accused AIICO of erasing the information to avoid paying his customers their benefits.
Adolphus however provided receipts and acknowledgement messages proving that the payments were indeed made at the times they were supposed to be made.
(The receipts for payments made by another customer, Ugonna)
“If truly, these payments were not made, how then were policy documents printed and issued? Section 50 of the Insurance Act of 2003 states that the receipt of an insurance premium is a condition precedent to a valid insurance contract,” Adolphus said.
“Did I print these official documents myself? Are these receipts forged? How was I paid commissions on these payments if you claim these payments were not made or cannot be traced? How then was I being promoted? Did I promote myself?”
AIICO could not corroborate the information on its end and refused to pay the customers their benefits.
When Adolphus requested that AIICO terminate all his life insurance policies with the company, they responded by claiming that they could only terminate three at a time. AIICO had asked him for documents which he provided, but the company provided no response afterwards.
Adolphus said AIICO had also threatened him to go to court.
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TERMINATION, BLACKLISTING AND HARASSMENT
On November 22, Adolphus was suspended indefinitely from AIICO ‘pending the conclusion of [an] investigation’ of fund mismanagement within the company. The company terminated Adolphus’ agency contract based on established cases of premium suppression and diversion against him.
Adolphus was sent another termination letter on February 28 following the investigation by AIICO’s internal audit department.
On June 28, AIICO released a disclaimer notice on The Guardian to inform the general public that Adolphus, alongside six others, were no longer AIICO representatives after their contracts were terminated.
Adolphus accused AIICO of repeatedly harassing and threatening him.
He said he was taken to State CID Panti in August 2024 but nothing was found on him.
“AIICO has used kinetic and non-kinetic means to intimidate and silence me. I have escaped two (2) assassination attempts,” he claimed.
“How many more can I take? I’ve written a petition to the EFCC, I have sought help from legal experts, I have reported to NAICOM, NDIC, CBN, SEC, CIIN, FCCPC, ICPC and others. What more can I do?”
Adolphus also told FIJ that, conventionally, customers have held him responsible for their missing insurance benefits and have threatened him. He added that in many cases, he has had to pay customers back from his pocket due to pressure.
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CUSTOMER TESTIMONIALS
FIJ spoke to three clients of Adolphus and customers of AIICO who were victims of the alterations.
Endurance Ugwoke (not real name) told FIJ that he was convinced by Adolphus to procure an insurance policy with AIICO and he applied for a flexible endowment plan in 2021 with a maturity date of 15 years.
For the next three years, Ugwoke paid in premiums of over N100,000 through Adolphus and received receipts and acknowledgement for each payment.
However, on December 13, AIICO called Ugwoke to inform him that his 4th instalment payment was missing, to which he responded with an attachment of his latest receipt.
On December 19, two days after AIICO had acknowledged the receipts, Ugwoke emailed AIICO his desire to terminate his policy with them due to the poor handling of his account. He stated that he had paid the full instalments for 4 years, which had accrued to N487,755.
AIICO replied by stating that it had only received three year’s worth of instalments from Ugwoke and would only surrender N363,555.
After a series of emails and provision of evidence, on June 13, AIICO finally admitted it possessed records of the fourth payment. The company then paid Ugwoke his benefits in full, amounting to N469,107.
Ugwoke noted that AIICO consistently brought up the fact that he had paid his premiums through Adolphus and not directly to AIICO, and said it was a wrong way of making payments. Ugwoke did not see it as a defence for not acknowledging the existence of his payments.
Ehio Harmony (not real name), another client FIJ spoke to, said that she opened a savings plan with AIICO despite her husband’s opposition. Adolphus had persuaded her to sign up for the plan with AIICO.
She began to invest N30,000 and everything seemed to go smoothly. Harmony then decided to increase her investment to N100,000, making payments mostly through PoS transactions and sending receipts to Adolphus for documentation. AIICO subsequently issued receipts for these transactions.
She stated that she received confirmation calls from AIICO agents stating that her savings plan had reached N700,000. However, when the plan matured and Harmony requested payment, she was informed that AIICO could not verify three of her transactions.
Despite providing details of her payment methods with receipts issued by AIICO, the company requested her agent’s statement of account to further investigate the transactions.
(Harmony’s four payments)
“I was paid N400,000, but I was expecting N700,000 based on my savings with AIICO,” Harmony said.
“This difference is really upsetting for me, especially since I’m a stay-at-home mum who depends on my husband’s support.
“I had carefully saved from the money he gave me, so the shortfall has been very difficult for me.”
Another customer told FIJ that he had completely collected his policy plan for the 2024/2025 cycle. He however stated that the only relations he had with AIICO was to terminate his second plan since he no longer found it safe keeping his funds with the company.
“My payment was not fully paid on my maturity date but later completed in instalments by personal account of Mr Obinna Adolphus Nwosu. I am not comfortable with such kind of payment,” he said when asked why he chose to terminate his account.
In response to this, Adolphus maintained that because AIICO had exonerated themselves from the responsibility of paying these clients their money, he had to pay the AIICO’s clients himself due to pressure and threats.
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AFTERMATH
On Wednesday, Adolphus was accosted by thugs who he claimed were sent by an aggrieved customer. They took him to Festac Police Station, where he was detained for six days.
On Monday, he was moved to CID Panti, and was still detained at press time.
According to Adolphus, AIICO has consistently refused to take the matter to court and charge him legally with their accusations.
“The question is: Were those payments remitted? Yes! Do I have proof? Yes! Did I forge the proof? Absolutely not! But if in anyway I have defaulted, can I please have my day in court?”
Adolphus said that, of the many government agencies and regulators he had reported his ordeal to, only the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) acknowledged his message. The SEC has yet to take action against AIICO.
He had also written a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), but he has received no intervention.
When FIJ called and emailed AIICO on Friday, the insurance company promised to respond swiftly in an email. AIICO had sent no response at press time.
The post Whistleblower Accused AIICO of Misplacing Customers’ Insurance Payments, Endangering His Life. Angry Client Locked Him Up in Panti appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.