Dana crash: Victims’ relatives get N418.75m insurance claims

Dana air crash site
| credits: The Punch

Relatives of 85 out of the 153 victims of the Dana Air crash of June 3, 2012 in Iju area of Lagos State have been paid N418.75m  insurance claims.

The Managing Director, Prestige Assurance Plc, the lead insurer of the aircraft, Mr. Anand Mittal, who said this in an exclusive interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Tuesday, said 83 claimants got N4.67m each, which represents 30 per cent of the total claims they are entitled to, while two others, who had completed the documentation processes, including submission of letter of administration, got N15.57m full insurance settlement each.

“We have paid an initial liability for 85 relatives; two of them with letters of administration and had done complete documentation received their full compensation. We are ready to pay the balance to the remaining claimants as soon as they complete their documentations too,” Mittal said.

On why many of the relatives had not been able to collect the balance of 70 per cent of the claims, he said this might be due to their inability to get letters of administration of the deceased’s estates easily as it was a criterion to accessing the balance.

The Prestige Assurance boss gave an assurance that the firm would pay N15.57m or $100,000, which was the internationally acceptable standard, to the relatives of each deceased passenger.

According to him, 30 per cent of the risk is domiciled in Nigeria, while the remaining is reinsured abroad.

Mittal explained that Clyde and Company was the legal firm handling the crashed plane’s liability abroad, but was being represented in Nigeria by the law firm of Yomi Oshikoya and Company.

Whenever documentation was completed on the claims process, he said such was passed to the Yomi Oshikoya and Company and cheques issued immediately to claimants.

According to him, when it comes to the liability claims in aviation claims, the insurance company does not deal directly with the claimants because such have to be done by lawyers.

Mittal said, “Money cannot just be paid to anybody, that is why the lawyers were verifying and the firm has paid money to those who have been verified by their lawyers, it is the dependants that should be compensated and we cannot identify them on our own because if we don’t handle it legally, we will run into problems later.

“Some of the deceased had more than one wife and children from other women; so, these are legal issues that we cannot handle on our own, and that is the peculiar nature of this kind of liability.”

For this reason, he said the insurance company was not dealing directly with the relatives, but their solicitors.

He said, “Whatever documentations are complete, 

Yomi Oshikoya accepts them and send to us to prepare for payment; based on that, we issue our cheque and pass down to Yomi Oshikoya and give them the discharge letter. We pay $9,000 and the foreign reinsurers pay $21,000. That is how it is done because these are purely legal issues.”