•Says firm abandoned him
•Offers too meagre, says Lagos govt
•We made two reasonable offers for him, says insurance firm
Over one year after he lost his left arm on an accident, 36-year-old driver Tajudeen Wahab is still living in agony.
“Life”, he said, “has become hell for me because I can no longer take care of my family of six.”
Wahab said he has sold his house and car to treat himself.
His children, he said, had thrown out of school because of his inability to offset the school bills.
Speaking when he visited The Nation headquarters in Lagos, Wahab said he was travelling to Jos via Enugu/Otukpo Federal Highway in Okpokwu Local Government Area of Benue state, when a truck belonging to Dangote Group rammed into his fully-loaded bus.
He said he was rushed to a nearby hospital where he underwent a surgery before being transferred to Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital.
His left arm was later amputated.
He said: “On August 7, last year, I left Port-Harcourt to Okwungaga in Plateau State. When I got to Benue State, I suddenly noticed a Dangote truck came from the rear and hit my vehicle along with three others. I was rushed to a hospital called Mkar in Gboko. That was what I saw last. My left arm was broken into pieces. A sack was used to hold the pieces together. The damage led to its amputation. Afterwards, I was transferred to Osun State where I’m based. I sold the house I built and my vehicle to treat myself. In fact my wife’s provision store was empty because she had sold all her goods. My children have also stopped schooling since last year. My first born is 17, the second is 12 while the third is 9. Feeding has been difficult except for the good will of people towards my family. I can’t do any serious work again because driving is the profession I trained for and I’m not educated.”
A police report said “the accident occurred as the Dangote truck laden with 900 bags of salt, driven by one Adamu Mohammed was descending Odoba hills. The brake suddenly failed and the driver lost control. As a result, the truck rammed into a trailer from the rear. Four other vehicles travelling in the same route were hit in a row.”
Wahab’s lawyer Bolanle Odunlami in a telephone chat with The Nation said a lawsuit of N30million has been filed against the company.
When contacted, Dangote Group referred The Nation to Cornerstone Insurance, the company handling the matter.
A mail from Cornerstone Insurance Head, Marketing and Corporate Communications Group, Cordelia Ekeocha, said that two reasonable offers have been made to Wahab’s counsel in order to resolve the matter.
The mail entitled: Our Response to Mr. Wahab Story, said Wahab’s lawyer rejected the offers.
But Odunlami told The Nation that the offer was too meagre to call compensation for a man who lost an arm.
The mail reads: “We at Cornerstone Insurance empathise with Mr. Wahab on the trauma and pain of going through a motor accident and sustaining a permanent disability in the process.
“We were notified of a claim on the 22nd of October, 2015 by our client involving their insured truck and a third party vehicle belonging to Mr. Wahab on the 7th of August, 2015.
“We received a demand for compensation along with some of the claims substantiating documents from the legal representatives of the third party on the 14th of January, 2016. However, they are yet to submit the medical payment receipts as at date.
“That notwithstanding, we have had three negotiation meetings with the legal representatives of the injured party, with the injured present at two of those meetings. The meetings were essentially to bridge the gap in their huge monetary demand. The latest of such meeting was on the 22nd of September, 2016.
“We have made two reasonably substantial offers of compensation to the legal representatives of the third party which has been rejected. The injured was not present at the last meeting and may not be aware of the latest offer that we have communicated to his counsel on this matter.
“We are a very reputable company and we pride ourselves as being one of the most efficient and fastest claims processing insurance companies in the industry.
“We will advise the legal representatives of the third party to come back to the negotiating table rather than relying on litigation which is an unnecessary adversarial process and most often protracted. We would prefer to settle this claim as soon as possible so as to afford the injured party the necessary resources to move on with his life.
“In any case, this matter is already in court and therefore sub judice and should not be published in the press.”
Odunlami, a Principal State Counsel at the Directorate for Citizen Rights department, Lagos State Ministry of Justice told The Nation that the insurance firm on September 7 offered to pay N5 million, which she described as “too meagre.”
According to her, a letter dated September 28 was sent to the firm demanding a sum of N25 million for the victim.
She said the company’s representative told her that N10 million was being propose, though still subjected to management approval.
But Odunlami told The Nation that N10 million cannot cover Wahab’s loses.
“The victim’s arm has been amputated. He cannot do anything with that hand again, not to talk of going back to his business. That amount can’t be compensated for the damage done to him,” she said.
Wahab confirmed to The Nation yesterday that amount proposed and rejected it.
He said: “I have told my lawyer that the amount is too small. I can’t take it. I’ve being somehow rendered incapacitated. I can’t go back to my driving business, my house is gone, my wife’s shop emptied and the children thrown out of school. What will that amount caters for?”
