Dangote’s Killing Machines

A retinue of cases indicate that trailers owned by business mogul and cement magnate, Aliko Dangote, are causes of recent auto accidents on the nation’s highways
By Bayo Bernard
I read your comments on the horrific multi-car accident that occurred at the Berger portion of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway in Lagos this weekend, and which led to the loss of several lives. My heart goes out to the victims. I do pray for them that their souls rest in peace.” That was the condolence message on President Goodluck Jonathan’s Facebook to relations of victims of a road accident that occurred on the Lagos-Ibadan highway on Sunday, August 15, 2010.
Despite this emotional message by the president, which was somehow meant to assuage the feelings of Nigerians who may have lost their loved ones to the ghastly motor accident, the responses to the president’s comment were not complimentary. At least many expected that the nation’s number one citizen will be applauded for showing sympathy, a pointer to the effect that he was somewhat in tune with happenings around the country.
But a summary of various comments captured by The Source on the president's facebook was to the effect that the relevant authories must go beyond rhetorics by confronting the issue of menace caused by trucks owned by business mogul, Aliko Dangote, to road users across the country on daily basis. In short, commentators want the President to deal with the issue headlong.
On that, however, President Jonathan had this to say: “I do not want to say much because this is a bad incident that requires action rather than words, but suffice to say that I have ordered an investigation into the circumstances that led to this avoidable disaster, with a view to taking action to ensure that, as much as is humanly possible, this type of scenario does not re-occur.”
It however remains to be seen whether the authorities will match words with action on this issue, with a view to stopping trailers and other heavy duty vehicles from sending Nigerians to their early graves. Perhaps, if the federal government had listened to calls from well-meaning Nigerians, the many lives that were lost penultimate Sunday, would have been saved. Besides, the family of one of the victims, Juliana Adebusoye, would still be enjoying the milk of kindness that flows from her veins.
On that fateful morning, Adebusoye, a mother of three, had received a message from her younger brother, also living in the same neighbourhood with her at Mosalasi, along the Lagos/Abeokuta expressway, a surburb of Lagos, that their mum living in Ibadan had just been admitted into a hospital in the ancient city. She has been sick for a long time and the ailment had worsened that she thought that she would not survive. Being the first child and considering that Adebusoye had spent so much to see their mother recover from the protracted sickness, the dying mum reckoned that it was necessary that she blesses her kind-hearted daughter before she finally departs. Therefore, she requested that Adebusoye and her younger brother come to see her that Sunday morning. It was during the journey to Ibadan that Adebusoye, who was described by neighbours as a very generous person, met her untimely death. But her younger brother survived, and he, like other eye-witnesses of the gory incident gave grisly accounts of how the unforgettable incident happened.
The accident which occurred opposite Otedola Estate, according to various eye-witness accounts who spoke to The Source, was blamed on reckless driving by a truck driver belonging to the Dangote group. A policeman at a checkpoint on the road had flagged down the trailer, but due to high speed the driver was unable to slow down, and therefore lost control and eventually rammed the trailer into another car, which immediately burst into flames. At the time the accident happened, the trailer was said to be stocked with sugar and heading for Kano. The driver died instantly. His assistant, one Aminu Seheedu Kano, later told journalists that the trailer had a break failure and that the driver was trying to manoeuvre around the police checkpoint when the accident happened.
“The driver struggled to find his way but unfortunately the road was blocked. There was collision and I was lucky to escape,” Kano said.
Though Kano escaped death by the whiskers, not so some other hapless victims, who like Adebusoye were unaware that death was lurking that afternoon. According to investigations by The Source, no fewer than 60 people may have died. A breakdown of the causalty figures show that not less than seven fully-loaded inter-state commercial vehicles, each carrying 18 passengers on board were razed by fire. The victims, according to on-the spot assessment made by The Source at the scene of the accidents, were burnt beyond recognition.
Marvel Akpoyibo, Lagos State Police Commissioner blamed the unfortunate incident on the reckless driving of the trailer driver. Apparently making reference to claims that the accident was caused by policemen, Akpoyibo argued that if the driver had been driving with caution the deceased families now thrown into mourning would have been spared the sadness they now go through.
Akpoyibo: “If you are driving on a highway and you see many vehicles, what you do is apply the break. So if the driver fails to apply break or had break failure, he should be blamed.”
Not a few will agree with Akpoyibo that it is high time that concerned authorities saved Nigerians from the daily accidents caused by trucks, mostly belonging to the Dangote Group, on the nation’s highways.
On March 10, 2010, no fewer than 60 persons lost their lives in a road accident in Kogi state. During the accident, articulated vehicles crushed 60 people at Felele,a suburb of Lokoja, the state capital.
Investigations indicate that the articulated vehicles, belonging to Dangote Cement Company and fully loaded with bags of cement were responsible for the accident. The vehicle had lost control after a brake failure and rammed into other vehicles. About 20 vehicles were crushed, among which were five buses, 12 cars and some other vehicles.
The Kogi incident is said to be only one in what has seemingly become a daily occurrence, as the road is very close to a market. And on this particular occasion, many traders lost their lives while others were lucky to escape with major injuries.
The causalty figure prompted the state Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Sector Commander, Asaniyam to offer advice to Dangote management on the need to train its rivers on road safety. Asaniyan called on the Dangote Group to always train their drivers on road regulations, insisting that the company's drivers had on many occasions sent hapless Nigerians to their early graves. The Kogi incident almost cost the state deputy governor his life, after angry protesters tried to lynch him due to what they described as refusal by the state authorities to hold Dangote management responsible for causing untimely deaths on the road on almost daily basis.
The deputy governor had visited the scene of the accident with a view to undertaking a self-assessment when the angry mob decided to move against him. It was the prompt response of his security aides, who quickly went into action by spiriting him into his vehicle and sped away from the protesters who threw missiles at his convoy that saved him.
Also on July 13 this year in Oyo state, about 40 persons died in an auto crash on the Ibadan-Ife expressway. The accident involved a fuel tanker. One of the survivors of the auto crash that occurred along Asejire, on the border between Oyo and Osun state, is Adejare Bello, the Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly. Bello, who at the time of the accident was in company of his family members, however lost his pilot vehicle. But not so lucky to escape death were 40 persons who were burnt to ashes after the fuel tanker burst into flames.
According to investigations, the driver of the tanker which was coming from Ibadan had lost control and the vehicle swerved to the lane from Osogbo. The petrol it spilled on the road later caught fire, as coming vehicles ran into the flame-on causing multiple accidents.
Meanwhile, on the same day that a Dangote trailer killed traders in Kogi, a similar incident had occurred in Benin, the capital of Edo state where four persons were killed by a trailer at the popular Uselu Market on the Ugbowo-Lagos road. The Mack trailer with registration number XG633 BEN, had brake failure, and it was during the effort to avoid running into the market, that the vehicle swerved into the opposite direction. The four persons crushed included a middle-age man and a female nurse, whose husband and children were waiting on the other side of the road.
Few months ago in Lagos some persons became victims of Dangote's killing machines. It was a sanitation day, and traffic is ususally very light on such occasions, prompting the few vehicles on the road to overspeed. This was exactly the case on that day when a Dangote truck, citing break failure, rammed into passangers gathered at the popular Cele bus stop along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway. Among the three persons who died was a pregnant woman.
Thursday, July 29, 2010 is a day that would rather not be remembered with joy by members of the Lokoja Royal family of Kogi state. It was a day which was initially meant to be a glorious one, as the family members were savouring the joy of wedding ceremony by a relation. But the celebration abrutly snowballed into a funeral rite as 14 members of the family gave up the ghost in a ghastly motor accident along the Lokoja Abuja highway.
They were travelling along Shenseying village, about 19 kilometres away from Lokoja when the 18-seater bus in which they were travelling had a head-on collision with an articulated trailer belonging to Dangote Cement Company.
In the words of Ahmadu Abass, a representative of the royal family, the accident was a "bouquet of tragedy" for his family. This is because the victims were mostly young adults killed in their prime.
"All because of only one person's wedding ceremony? This is too serious! Why did they attempt to go for the wedding ... if the wedding had been cancelled or postponed, perhaps, this tragedy would not have befallen the family," Abass lamented.
Earlier this year on January 18, three secondary school students who were on their way to school and five others were crushed to death after a trailer and an 18-seater commercial bus rammed into each other in Ore, Ondo state. Indeed, it was a sad day for the parents and wards in the incident. It was resumption day, after a long holiday and the parents were happy that their children had finally resumed. But the good news soon became a sad story after the families of the students were told few minutes later, that the same students who had left home some few minutes earlier were now stone dead. It was an unforgettable day.
Unlike the Owo, Ondo state incident, the victims of the accident that occurred on Ikot Epene Road were lucky enough to be alive after a tanker left its course and rammed into buildings leaving 18 people with serious injuries. It happened on the wee hours of Sunday, December 13, 2009 when most of the victims were still asleep. The trailer which later burst into flames destroyed properties worth our N300 million. Any moment from now it is not unlikely for another auto accident to happen on the highway, and it will probably be caused by one of the many trailers owned by the shrewd multi-billionnaire businessman.