Date: 2015-02-25

A sum of N1million insurance benefit has been presented to the family of the late member of the Kwara State council of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) AbdulMalik Akanbi Diko, courtesy of the council.

Diko died on the 5th of January in Saudi Arabia while on a lesser hajj (Umrah) with some members of the state council of the union.

NURTW President, Alhaji Najeem Usman Yasin, who handed over the cash to the representative of the deceased family at a meeting with members of the union at state council Secretariat along Airport road, Ilorin, said the union would not shirk its responsibility of prioritizing welfare of members.

Yasin was also in Ilorin to commission the central mosque he facilitated at the Ilorin International airport.

He said the transport organization would encourage members to key into the insurance scheme with a view to ensuring that family of late members did not suffer after the demise of their breadwinner.

Emphasizing importance of the scheme, Yasin said delegates to this year’s conference of NUTRW would only be allowed entrance into the venue of the conference after presenting their insurance card.

He said the union under his leadership was not out to intimidate any member but ensure that they are carried along in the scheme of things.

The NURTW boss commended the state chairman of the council, Alhaji Aliyu Issa Ore, for setting the precedence, and urged other state councils to follow suit, saying the union was making effort to develop a policy that would renew the welfare of members of the union.

“The message is that we have a programme we launched last year, which its insurance cover for our members, and at the same time to collate the data of our members across the nation, and at the same time, it serves as an identity card for the union, in which the beneficiary of this programme who is late from Kwara State, Alhaji Diko. That is the first person that died. And the N1million we are presenting to the family.

“So we use this opportunity to call on our members; those who have not enrolled into this scheme, should make sure they enroll, because there is a lot of importance attached to it. Because it serves various purposes including membership card, ATM card and insurance wallet. So I’ll call on members to key in”, NUTRW boss said.

He also warned those who have sinister agenda in the union to steer clear of such as the transport union would not hesitate in dealing decisively with anyone caught to be portraying the union in bad light.

Also speaking, the state Chairman of NURTW, Alhaji Aliyu Issa Ore, said the payment of the insurance fund was a dream come true, though it was saddening that it started in the state.

“The union started this thing (insurance scheme) middle of last year. We embarked on the enrollment of members into the scheme in collaboration with bank, insurance and a company known as capital 3 and Glo. We collaborated to have a bio-metric identity card, and at the same time we would be using it as insurance. That was how we started. About thousand of our members have done that here in Kwara.

“The policy is that if a member dies, the insurance company would pay a sum of N1million to next of kin of the late member. And if there is an accident leading to permanent disability, that would cause the company to give the victim a huge sum of money. I’m very glad to have this thing in Kwara, though it saddened my heart that it started here in Kwara. But at the same time, the N1million will go a long way to redeem part of the problem of the deceased family”.