A Lagos-based insurance broker, Olayiwola Rotimi Inyang, has made serious accusations against the Lagos State Government and his former employers, FGB General Insurance Limited, a subsidiary of FBN Holdings Limited. Inyang claims that both entities stole and implemented his ideas without his consent, leading him to demand compensation amounting to N40 billion for alleged intellectual property theft.
According to Inyang, he developed two lucrative proposals for the Lagos State government, which he asserts are now being implemented without any acknowledgement or consultation with him.
In an interview with our correspondent, Inyang alleged that he was defrauded intellectually by both the Lagos State Government and FBN General Insurance.
Inyang, who previously worked as a commissioned insurance marketer for FBN General Insurance, states that he is the mastermind behind the concepts of the Compulsory Private Building Insurance Scheme and the Compulsory Health Insurance Scheme, both of which have been adopted by the Lagos State Government to enhance its revenue generation capacities.
The aggrieved Nigerian further claims that, as a commissioned agent for FBN General Insurance, he submitted the concepts and proposals through the insurance company. He states that the letter and proposals were jointly handled by himself and the managing director of the insurance firm, Mr. Bode Opadokun.
“I came up with the concept for the Compulsory Private Building Insurance Scheme and Compulsory Health Insurance Scheme that the Lagos State government is currently running with the FBN General Insurance.
“Unfortunately, both the state government and FBN General Insurance, fraudulently connived to steal my intellectual properties, act on the concepts and are making huge sums of money from them now without recourse to me and payment of any compensation,” he claimed.
Speaking further, Inyang said all efforts to establish the truth about his ownership of the concept despite funny moves by FBN General Insurance, have not brought any positive change though, he claimed the truth was acknowledged by the state government through some of its top officials.
He also claimed that the Lagos State Government admitted that the insurance company merely made use of him and tactically offloaded him from the project that he initiated.
“Despite the thorough investigation and the establishment of the truth beyond every reasonable doubt by the current Deputy Governor, His Excellency Kadri Obafemi Hamzat, from the former Commissioner for Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations, Oluseye Oladejo, of the administration of former Governor Akinwumi Ambode, who oversaw the agency (the Lagos State Safety Commission), who took up this conceptualized project of mine, pursuant to the revealing information I was given by the former Commissioner for Finance, Akinyemi Ashade Jeremiah, via telephone conversation on September 21, 2017.