Olaleye Aluko

An Assistant Superintendent of Police, a female inspector and a corporal are currently being detained by the Lagos State Police Command for allegedly collecting the insurance claims of dead and non-existent policemen.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the arrested officers, who are attached to the insurance section of the command, had allegedly swindled the Force by collecting the claims of policemen which reportedly ran into millions of naira.



Our correspondent gathered that the suspects, whose names had yet to be ascertained, were arrested by the X-Squad Section of the command on Monday, November 10, after a petition reached the police authorities that families of some dead policemen had yet to get the claims.

It was learnt that the three policemen were thereafter allegedly found to have diverted the money and were subsequently arrested.

A police source told our correspondent on Tuesday that the officers were about to undergo an orderly room trial. He added that each of the deceased officers had a claim of about N500,000 which the suspects had allegedly pocketed.

He said, “The policemen are attached to the insurance section, and they are in charge of handling the claims and gratuities of deceased officers. They were arrested about two weeks ago. What happened was that they defrauded the police by collecting money on behalf of non-existent and dead policemen.

“Their mode of operation is to cook up names of policemen, claim that the policemen are dead, and then collect their claims. The money runs into millions. They are currently in the cell, and they are going to face an orderly room trial.

“It was when a petition got to the command that investigation began into the matter. We went to some divisions where the three officers claimed policemen had died and had collected gratuities for them, but we discovered that there were no such names.

“We also discovered that the families of some dead policemen, whose claims had been paid by the police, had not got their claims. That was how the three were arrested. The total sum of the fraud is not known, but if each insured policeman gets about N500,000, then the amount runs into millions.”

The Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Joe Offor, confirmed the arrest.

Offor, who declined to name the suspects, added that investigation was ongoing into the matter.

He said, “Some police officers were arrested on an allegation of fraud. The fraud borders on tampering with records of deceased members of the Force. We have some families of deceased policemen whose families said they died as far back as 2013, and the families had not got their entitlements. There could still be others involved. But investigation is ongoing into the matter.”

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http://punchng.com/three-policemen-arrested-for-collecting-dead-officers-claims/