How we were humiliated, victimized by Dangote’s company – Truck officer revealed

Editor’s note: In any recruitment process, both the employees and employers usually want trust to be the key factor in engaging either at entry or managerial level. However, in this piece , Ganiyu Akeem, the NAIJ.com contributor explains how he and other Truck Officers employed by the company were hired and left stranded.

In April 2015, the company announced both in print and electronic media a Truck Entrepreneurship Scheme that sought to empower graduates financially. The scheme entails eventual ownership of a truck each by every successful employee (Truck Officer) who was able to cover 400,000km with the truck.

We excitedly applied for this offer with the required documents, and were eventually shortlisted. Thereafter, we went through the first training process that lasted from June to October 2015 at Obajana (Kogi state), Ibese (Ogun state), and Ikeja (Lagos state).

Thereafter, there was physical background confirmation of our residences and that of our guarantors by Background Check International (BCI), a company in Lagos, whose staff visited our homes and that of our guarantors from November 2015 and January 2016.

On February 2016, 200 (two hundred) of us got phone calls to report to Obajana plant for immediate commencement of duty. The impromptu manner with which we heeded this call from this ‘reputable’ company cost most of us our current jobs then. Yet after training, we were asked to go back and wait for their call.

In March 2016, an agreement form covering the scheme was sent to us via email to complete and send to the High Court for legal endorsement. This, we promptly did at our own cost. It is noteworthy that the agreement provided a monthly remuneration of N60, 000 for every Truck Officer including a performance bonus of N90, 000 on meeting the monthly target.

In April 2016, we got a call to report to Ibese plant to process our documents and commence work. This we did, and after training, we were asked to go back and wait for their call.

In May 2016, we got a call asking us to report to Ibese plant for immediate commencement of duty, some reported on 12th while some resumed on 13th and we were allocated one truck each to supervise. Later on, the trucks we each handled increased to four, then to six for those in Ibese and seven for those in Obajana.

On 2nd June 2016, the management summoned us to a meeting to announce the cancellation of the entrepreneurship scheme. They issued us an appointment letter saying we were automatically staff of the company. However, the letter stated that our appointment would be confirmed permanent after six (6) months. It further stipulated a monthly consolidated salary of N60, 000 and unspecified performance bonus.

On that same month (June 2016), another 200 (two hundred) Truck Officers were added to our number and were deployed to Obajana plant and the same appointment letters were issued to them.

In September 2016, about 400 (four hundred) Truck Officers were further employed, 200 were deployed to Obajana plant while 200 were deployed to Ibese plant.

In December 2016, instead of issuing the first batch of Truck Officers confirmation letters, our management introduced a new form of daily truck reporting, saying it was meant to be used as our Key Performance Indicator (KPI). Though grossly disappointed, we obediently adjusted to this new development which officially commenced in Ibese plant In January 2017.

On Sunday 8th January 2017, a Truck Officer, Oyelami Adekunle Ismael, slumped and died on duty in Ibese plant, and all our management did was to ask some Truck Officers to accompany the corpse with an ambulance to his hometown with a paltry sum of N50,000 (fifty thousand naira).

It is noteworthy to say that we made effort by sending mails twice to our management to book a meeting with us in order to discuss our issues but it all proved abortive as we got no response. Also worthy of note is that our enterprising actions led to the revival of more than 500 (five hundred) non- operational trucks to become operational.

On Saturday 4th February 2017, we were suddenly summoned by our management via Whatsapp social media to report to the plant for a very important meeting. To our surprise, military men were stationed at strategic positions around the plant. It was then that they started distributing termination

Letters (printed on ordinary A4 papers as against the company’s official letter-headed papers) to us, asking us to submit our identity cards and other company belongings, saying nothing about our severance dues and allowances if any.

We hereby implore all well-meaning Nigerians and the general public to come to our aid so as to bring this draconian and tyrannical method of management to an end in this country, and thus save the Nigerian youth from undue humiliation and victimization.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial policy of Naij.com.

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