Leadway Assurance, customer bicker over insurance claims

An Abuja-based man, Jolayemi Woleola has accused an insurance corporation, Leadway Assurance Company of fraud, describing the attitude and disposition of the company to his insurance claim as appalling, disappointing, annoying and frustrating.

He accused the insurance company of coming up with different excuses and outright lies to avoid the fulfilment of their obligation towards him.

“I entered into a vehicle insurance contract with Leadway covering my Mercedes Benz E 300 2017 model. The insured car was involved in an accident with a trailer on Kubwa express in Abuja on 23/07/2021.

“I presented my claim to Leadway after relevant documents like the police report were issued. The Leadway insurance has maliciously refused to reinstate me to the position I was in prior to the accident.

“Leadway started from questioning the veracity of an accident which threatened my life to outright lies of claiming to visit the hospital where I was treated of bleeding and being told no patient was treated on that day to twisting outright glaring facts as to the value of the Vehicle prior to insuring same.

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But in a letter to Jolayemi Woleola from Leadway Assurance Company, which was dated September 10, 2021 and signed by Okanke Eze of the Claims Department and E.0. Soje for Divisional Director, the company accused the policyholder of breaching the “policy terms and conditions guiding the principles of insurance”.

In the letter titled, ‘Re: Our Claim No: AB21C000098PM Our Policy No: PM210002781 AB Accident Involving Mercedes Benz E 300 With Reg No. RBC 123 BL on 23/07/2021 Insured: JOLAYEMI WOLEOLA,’ Leadway said it would only offer N3,769,941.56, which translates to N3,711,755.09 payment after deduction for “Less 1.75% contribution for betterment on replaced items”.

It said among other things, “You disclosed to us that the vehicle was purchased in April, 2021 while the first servicing was done in Lagos before bringing it to Abuja. However, we discovered that the vehicle was sold via auction on 08/09/2020 with primary damage to the front end, secondary damage right front and airbags not reinstalled. Being an accident vehicle, the maximum sum insured value is N7,250,000.00 as against the sum insured of N15million placed on the same.

In another letter to Jolayemi Woleola dated October 5, 2021 and signed by Okanke Eze of Claims Department and Onasanya Mustapha for Divisional Director, Leadway Assurance Company said, “We refer to your mail of 17th September, 2021 and letter dated 15th September, 2021 respectively in which you rejected our offer of N3,769,941.56 given to you without prejudice.

“However, we have gone through all the receipts and invoices you attached to your letter under reference and it further indicates that you concealed material facts about the vehicle before insuring same with us. The implication of concealing material facts ab initio qualifies for repudiation of the claim as this makes the contract void.”

It insisted it would not improve its offer, saying, “In view of the above, we have graciously allowed the claim by giving you an offer rather than outright repudiation of the claim as such, we will not be able to improve on the settlement offer and urge you to execute the discharge voucher earlier sent to you to enable us conclude action on the claim and mark our file closed. We look forward to receiving from you shortly.