The Controller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Col. Hameed Ali (retd.) has been summoned by an ad hoc committee of the House of Representatives over an alleged N250m insurance fraud involving the service.

According to the chairman of the committee, Adekunle Akinlade, insurance firms connived with some government Ministries, Departments and Agencies to defraud the government.

The committee discovered some irregularities in the custom’s insurance transactions between 2013 and 2015.

The Federal Government reportedly paid over N200bn in insurance premiums between 2013 and 2015, with at least “N910m” going to unlicensed brokerage firms.

Akinlade stated, “The issue is that these companies got business consistently just because some people in the MDAs are being paid. Since the commencement of this investigation, we have sent invitations to the NCS, but they have refused to make submission to the committee.

“We are summoning the CG to come and explain why he refused to honour the committee and why it engaged services of unlicensed brokers and agents that were paid over a quarter of a billion naira.

“Many of the insurance companies that have appeared, deliberately gave us wrong information, thinking that we can never go to the extent of scrutinising every detail in their submissions.”

Azeez