The Federal Road Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has refused to pay the Group Life Insurance of one of its staff, Engineer Vincent Dadoeng, who died in 2014 on active duty, according to the deceased’s family members.
Speaking with KOKO TV NG, John Vincent, the son of the deceased, who hails from Quaan Pan Local Government Area of Plateau State but resided in Minna, Niger State capital, narrated how his father died on January 8, 2014, while he and other workers of FERMA were working on the Tegina Federal Road Minna, Niger State.
According to John, “they were cutting and redesigning the potholes on the road with a concrete cutting machine, the fuel on the machine finished and the operator was refilling the machine from a 25 litres gallon of petrol, so the fuel was throwing on the ground and my father (Engr Vincent Dadoeng) collected the fuel from the operator to help him pour the fuel well.
“It was in the process of trying to help the operator pour the fuel that the machine caught fire and burned my father.”
He said his father was rushed to Minna General Hospital and he was administered some treatment on the burns.
“After a week, we were discharged from the hospital and the doctors advised us to seek the option of traditional treatment. They gave us two options, one in Minna and one in Suleja, so my father chose Minna because of the pains he was going through.
“We visited the male herbalist and he commenced treatment and there was visible sign of healing not until February 6, 2014 when he (his father) stopped eating and drinking anything.
“We couldn’t sleep that day, so we rushed him to Standard Hospital Minna and he died on February 7, 2014.”
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John said that his father’s corpse was taken to his village in Quaan Pan Local Government in Plateau State where he was buried.
Continuing, John said that “His Group Life Insurance with the Federal Road Maintenance Agency has not been paid till date.”
According to him, “They (FERMA) requested for some documents from us and we have submitted the documents since 2015 and till now they haven’t paid.”
John lamented that “Our father was the breadwinner of the family,” and as a result of his death and FERMA’s failure to pay the family his father Group Life Insurance, “three of my siblings have dropped out of school because there was no means from anywhere.
“I have visited their (FERMA) headquarters three times in respect of the issue but they kept telling us that they are working on it and that some of the underwriters have changed their names. That is why they are finding it difficult to pay us.
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“To be honest, I am in tears because my father dedicated his life for these people. While he was alive, working with FERMA, we only used to see him once a week because all the time, he was working on the federal road, maintaining the potholes.
“My family and I are in great pain right now. We are not soliciting for monetary help, we just want our father’s life insurance to be paid,” he lamented.
When KOKO TV NG called a staff of FERMA, Mrs Uju Agwubuo, for comments, she confirmed that the agency owed John Vincent’s family their father’s Group Life Insurance, but said, “I am not in the right position to speak on the matter. FERMA has a media unit and people in charge of speaking about it.”
Mrs. Agwubuo however gave KOKO TV NG a contact email address through which FERMA could be contacted.
However, several days after, FERMA did not respond to the email sent to the agency, requesting comments on why Dadoeng’s Group Insurance has not been paid to his family after over nine years since he died.
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Photo Credit: Getty
