It was December 2013. When Nigerians were preparing to end the year
on a high note, the family of 36-year old Dantala Da’u, was ending the
year in a limbo; one caused by the mysterious disappearance of the young
man, while on his way to Lagos to deliver cement.
That period,
it was learnt, should have been a period of joy for Da’u, whom the
family said was preparing for his wedding which would have taken place
two weeks after the time he disappeared.
But he simply vanished
without a trace. With no clue as to his fate, the family has held on to a
waning hope that he might walk in some day.
But three years down the line, this has not happened.
From
Da’u’s appointment letter, a copy of which was provided to gooo/our-son-vanished-without-any-explanation-one-month-to-his-wedding-family-of-missing-driver/”>Saturday PUNCH, he started work with Dangote Nigeria Limited (Transport
Division), in October 2001.
His brother, who spoke with our
correspondent through an interpreter since he can only communicate in
Hausa, said that Da’ u was so honest at his job that he was given a
commendation letter at a time for returning 40 bags of sugar, which was
the excess merchandise loaded into his trailer.
For the family, what has further aggravated the sorrow is the fact that the police have offered them no explanation.
“We
are uneducated, this is why the company too has not told us anything
about what happened to him,” Da’u’s brother, Abdullahi, said.
According
to Abdullahi, for their mother, Hassana Aliyu, who is 80 years old,
life has become a daily dose of sorrow and sobbing in the last three
years because Da’u was everything to her.
“She is feeling very
sad and cries every time. She depended on my brother to feed because I
don’t have a good job yet. Things have been hard since then. This is why
I even plan to go to Port Harcourt in search of menial jobs,” Abdullahi
said.
Abdullahi said their depressed elderly mother, had told him to simply go to Lagos in search of his elder brother.
He
said when he got to the office of the Dangote transport division, an
official, who attended to him simply explained that the trailer Da’u was
driving was found intact but without him nor his motor-boy.
Saturday
PUNCH learnt that when no word was heard from him several hours after
he was supposed to deliver the goods in his trailer back in December
2013, officials were said to have pinpointed the location of the trailer
through a vehicle tracker on board.
The trailer was later
located in police custody. The company said the trailer was found in
custody of the Alakuko Police Division in Lagos, but all the 900 bags of
cement in it were gone.
The driver and the motor-boy, who brought the trailer there were nowhere to be found.
Unfortunately, they have remained so for the last three years.
Abdullahi
said that when their mother heard nothing from Da’u, who usually did
not stay away for long without contacting home, they became worried.
“I
came to Lagos to look for my brother, but all I came back with were the
papers of his employment. We knew he could not just go anywhere without
us knowing because we were making preparation for his wedding.
What could have happened to him? The company at least owes us an explanation all this while,” he said.
According
to him, when he got to the transport division office of Dangote, an
official showed him the vehicle, which he said had been assigned to
another driver.
“I was told the manager of the transport division
was not around. Two high ranking officials attended to me and told me
how the trailer he drove was found. The chairman of the drivers’ union
later told me to go and see the current driver of the trailer. He said
he would give me all the documents pertaining to my brother, which were
found in the trailer,” he said.
It may never be known what actually happened to Da’u and his motor-boy.
But
the family said an official explanation from the management of Dangote
Industries Limited would go a long way in dousing their apprehension.
But in a reaction, the company has refutted allegations that the driver went missing.
Rather, the company said it was still looking for the driver, which it alleged, sold its goods and absconded.
Head
of the company’s transport division, Mr. Mohammed Rabiu, alleged that
the driver attached to the company’s cement subsidiary, was asked to
deliver 900 bags of cement three years ago, adding that the trailer was
found but that Da’u sold off the products and abandoned the trailer on
the road.
Rabiu said, “In 2013, he loaded the cement from Ibeshe
in Ogun State and was supposed to deliver it to a depot at Isolo, Lagos.
At that time, nobody would have gone to look for a missing driver
because around that period, I had more than 12 cases of diversion of
goods from the company. There was a particular driver who loaded cement
eight times, diverted the products and abandoned the trailer.
“Some
of the drivers who have been disengaged in the company, form a band of
robbers and waylay other drivers and steal the company’s goods,
especially between Papalanto and Shagamu. This happens a lot around
December every year.”
Rabiu told our correspondent that Da’u was employed in Lagos but later transferred to the company’s Ibeshe factory.
According
to him, Da’u was employed in Lagos when the company still had a central
transport division, but when the company became a public liability
company, he was transferred to the Ibeshe factory.
He said, “As
far as I am concerned, no relation of Da’u came to ask for him in the
company. We are the one aggrieved in this case. We really need to see
the family members of the man. Go to Ibeshe and find out the level of
cheating perpetrated by drivers.
“We would have normally gone after the guarantor of any driver who diverts goods but most of them have fake guarantors.
“When
we commissioned a company to verify our drivers, out of 1,000 drivers,
600 had real guarantors, 400 had fake guarantors. When the company
explained the implication of guaranteeing drivers, about 100 of them
withdrew. This is the kind of thing we are facing.”