Alleged N33m debt: Accountant drags Staco Insurance to court

A chartered accountant Mr Jaiyeola Fatungase has dragged Staco Insurance Plc before the National Industrial Court in Lagos over the refusal of the company to pay him the terminal benefits of the sum of N33,200,000 after he resigned from the company.

Fatungase, in his statement of claim, said that he was employed by the defendant as a controller of accounts in 2005 and rose to the position of assistant director of finance until he voluntarily resigned in March 2020.

The claimant also asked the company to pay him the sum of N99,000, it deducted from his salary.

He stated that sometime in February 2015, the former managing director and the founder of the insurance firm, Dr Sakiru Oyefeso, summoned him to his office and handed him a cash sum of N11m, for safekeeping in his capacity as the assistant director of finance of the defendant’s company.

According to him, Oyefeso told him that the money was collected from the then defendant’s company chairman, Mr Dere Otubu, and that he would expend the said sum gradually to facilitate business for the defendant during the normal course of work.

When the matter in suit number NICN/LA/96/2022 came up before Justice M.N. Esowe of the NIC sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos for hearing, the case could not proceed as the defendant was not in court.

However, the claimant’s counsel  Ayodele Osanyinibi announced her appearance and informed the court that the case was for further mention and that they had served the defendant and acknowledged service but had not replied. Punch