By Isaac Anumihe
A driver of Dangote Cement has been handed over to the Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) for conveying a truck-load of frozen turkey.
The arrest was facilitated by the transport section of Dangote Cement led by its Chief Security Officer who acted on intelligence report.
While handing over the driver and his motor-boy to the Customs authority, Assistant General Manager, in charge of Security Services, CSP Ali Garba, explained that the company has a surveillance section that monitors all its trucks and drivers’ activities.
“On June 7, 2017, at about 18:20 hours, intelligence information received by Dangote Senior Drivers, Ibese, led to the interception of Dantrans truck No KMC 38 XR/ICT-13A-083 driven by a dismissed driver, Ismaila Abubakar.
The truck was loaded with frozen turkey and allegedly took off from Iyana Isolo, Lagos State, enroute Benin City, Edo State,” he said.
He further revealed that while Nasiru Ahmed is the bonafide driver of the truck KMC 38 XR/ICT-13A-083, preliminary investigation revealed that on June 2, 2017, Nasiru Ahmed loaded 900 bags of cement for Benin Depot. “At Kara Garage in Benin City, Nasiru dropped from the vehicle and travelled to Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State leaving the truck in the care of his motor-boys, Bilyaminu Abdullahi and Bashiru with the dismissed driver, Ismaila Abubakar,” he explained.
Unfortunately for the bonafide driver, Ismaila Abubakar drove the truck from Kara to Benin Depot to offload the cement after removing truck tracking system and left it in Benin City.
“Investigation revealed further that instead of driving straight to the plant, they decided to go to Iyana Isolo in Lagos State to lift frozen turkey to Benin City at the cost of N350,000, out of which only N70,000 was paid as part payment.
Recall that the company recently declared 285 of its truck drivers wanted over theft of about 3.5 million customised tyres belonging to the company.
Coordinator of the company’s National Patrol Unit, Alhaji Abdullahi Magaji, a retired Commissioner of Police, who disclosed this said each tyre of the company had an identification number and the number was registered against the driver’s name at collection point.
According to him, “already, 285 drivers identified to have collected 285 tyres have been declared wanted while a number of others are on the run. We have stopped their salaries and we are looking for them. So far, about 3.5 million tyres are missing from the company and we believe they are in circulation within and outside the country. We are determined to recover them.
“We are appealing to those patronising and encouraging the drivers to steal our tyres to stop forthwith. Dangote tyres are customised and marked. Dealers and vulcanisers should please beware. People should ensure that the tyres they buy either as new or second hand are not customised Dangote tyres. We have arraigned some drivers and dealers caught with tyres and efforts are being made to arrest vulcanisers involved,” he said.