The transport section of Dangote Cement Ibese Plant has intercepted one of the company’s truck loaded with contrabands in Ibadan, and handed the drivers over to the Nigeria Customs Service for proper investigation and possible prosecution.
The arrest of the drivers, according to Dangote Cement, was effected by a team of its security personnel led by the chief security officer, who acted on intelligence bordering on misconduct by some of the drivers.
While handing over the drivers and the motor boy to the Customs authority, Assistant General Manager in charge of security services, Dangote Cement Ibese Plant, Ali Garba, explained that the company had a surveillance section that monitors all the trucks and their drivers’ activities.
He said, “On June 7, 2017 at about 1820 hours, intelligence information received by Dangote senior drivers Ibese led to the interception of a Dantrans truck No. KMC 38 XR/ICT-13A-083 driven by a former and dismissed driver Ismaila Abubakar. The truck was loaded with frozen turkey allegedly loaded at Iyana Isolo, Lagos State and heading to Benin City, Edo State”
Garba added that while Nasiru H. Ahmed 284393 was the bona fide driver of truck KMC 38 XR/ICT-13A-083, preliminary investigation revealed that on June 2, he loaded 900 bags of cement for the Benin Depot.
He added, “At Kara Garage in Benin City, Nasiru H. Ahmed 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.”
“Unfortunately for the bona fide driver, Ismaila Abubakar drove the truck from Kara to the Benin Depot for offloading of the cement after removing the 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.”