Dangote Should Compensate Families N20 Million for each Victim of his trucks’ disaster

Dangote trailers have killed some more people, in Edo State. Incidences of his trailers and their killings all over the country have been going on for years with no accountability.

A few years ago, one of his trailers killed 16 people on the spot at Ketu Alapere bus stop. The victims were so fatally crushed that they were unrecognizable. On my visit to the Ikeja General hospital at that time, to identify one of the casualties; it was only by the ring on one of the fingers that i could tell it was our relative. Their faces were totally mangled.

Within a few weeks after that incidence, it was again reported that another Dangote trailer had killed 10 more people, and that the driver of the vehicle ran away after the incidence.
When these murders happen, there is usually outcry from the deceased families, which soon dissipates with nothing coming out of it.

Their modus operandi is to ram the trucks into people who are gathered at bus stops or who are loaded into vehicles. As soon as the devilish act is committed, the drivers take to their heels, usually into the bush.

Some people have even opined that, given the nature and regularity of these Dangote accidents, the quantum of bloodshed and lives lost, that they appear pre-planned. To some close observers of the repeat nature of these killings over the years, the incidences and attendant fatalities appear to have occultic and sacrificial intentionality.

The government, through its agencies must promulgate and enforce a law that should mandate Dangote and other truck owners to take out insurance policies.
They must henceforth indemnity families of their victims a minimum of N20 million for each person that is killed as a result of the recklessness of their drivers. Such other commensurate amount should likewise be awarded to other victims with various levels of injuries or incapacitation.

Due to no stiff penalty for the killings by Dangote trucks over the years, it is evident they have no regards for the lives of citizens. This must stop.

They have been getting away with a very light ‘slap on the wrist’, which has emboldened them. It is the reason Dangote drivers would have the temerity to threaten other road users that they would crush their cars and killed them, and that nothing will happen.

I know of a family whose only daughter was killed by one of these Dangote drivers and nothing really happened. Something must now be made to happen when they kill people with their recklessness. If any of his trucks kill 10 people in a particular week and Dangote’s insurance policy or his organization has to cough out N200 million in compensation to the families of those victims, that would serve as a deterrent.

There appears to be collusion and compromise between the Dangote organizations on the one hand, the Federal Road Safety Corp and Media houses on the other hand.

The Federal Road Safety seems not to carry out its oversight functions about the activities of these killer trucks on our roads. This may be due to the clout of Dangote and the reach of his influence; but there should be no individual or group above the law of the land, especially when the lives of citizens are involved.

What sort of controls does the FRSC have in place to ensure that only fully trained, tested and licensed drivers get behind the wheels of those killer trucks? What controls are in place to measure the road worthiness of the trucks and the drivers seating in them?
How is the alcohol level in the system of those drivers gauged? How are the speed limits checked and monitored? How many hours within a 24-hour window are the truck drivers allowed to be behind wheels? In a strict regulatory system, a tractor-trailer drivers should not be on the wheel for more than 10 – 12 hours within a 24-hour window, similar to the restrictions on pilots. Fatigue sets in, especially given the nature of the Nigerian roads. The monitoring Units must do better, by enforcing these regulations as compliment to the enactment of these prescribed penalties.
And the media houses, who should amplify the voices of the victims’ families shirk this corporate responsibility.

Why are they not beaming adequate searchlight on the atrocities being committed by Dangote trailers on a daily basis, throughout the length and breadth of the country?

I will not be in any doubt, that handsome budget is put in place by Dangote, to influence the media organizations so they look the other way rather than be the voice of the voiceless against these heinous crimes.

It is evident in the nature of their reporting, where reports are presented in nebulous style and language. Their reporting most often, masks the owners of accidented trucks. When they run the stories of these catastrophic accidents in sections of their publications, most time they obscure the gravity of the occurrence, so much that listeners or readers hardly notice what, ordinarily should have left them aghast.
Journalists must not be beholden to the interest of the rich where fatalities have occurred.

The above prescribed compensation must be instituted as a deterrent. That is the only effective penalty to curtail this criminality and the dehumanizing occurrences of the Dangote organization and other truck operators.

Peter Omonua
Ontario, Canada