BY AGNES IGWE, ABAKALIKI
A company based in Kaduna State, DAN Pat Haulage Nigeria Limited, has dragged the Nigerian Police to the Judicial Panel of Inquiry, sitting in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, over the alleged disappearance of its lorry load of goods, including the driver and ‘conductor’ of the truck.
Speaking with newsmen shortly after the panel’s sitting at the old Government House in Abakaliki, the company’s representative, simply identified as O. Alhasan, said, on the 4th of August 2020, the haulage company, attached to Nigerian Breweries, nationwide, sent one of its trucks to Ikom in Cross River State, but that the truck was allegedly stopped at Amasiri in Ebonyi State by men of the Nigerian Police Force.
Alhasan, who said the truck, its driver and the motor boy had remained missing since then, appealed to the panel to do justice on the matter for the sake of posterity.
He said, “My name is Mr O. Alhasan. I’m in the panel today because of an issue that my company is having with the Nigerian Police. The name of my company is DAN Pat Haulage Ventures, based in Kaduna State.
“DAN Pat Haulage is a haulage company attached to Nigerian Breweries nationwide. On the 4th of August 2020, one of our trucks was loaded from Aba, Abia State capital breweries; some goods were supposed to be delivered to a customer of Nigerian Breweries at Ikom in Cross River State.
“So the driver and his motor boy were in the truck going to Ikom when suddenly at a point, the company couldn’t reach them and decided to track the vehicle to know its movement and possible location. Along the line we discovered that the vehicle was parked longer than necessary at a place identified as Amasiri here in Afikpo North Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
“So, the company decided to question why the truck was parked there. The company sent somebody to go there to know what was happening. On reaching there, in fact, as I am speaking to you now, my driver and the motor boy who were stopped by the policemen in Amasiri are missing alongside the goods they were carrying.”
Meanwhile, the panel proceedings on the matter could not hold due to the absence of a representative of the Nigerian Police as respondent in the matter.
Consequently, the Chairman of the panel, Justice Alloy Nwankwo, directed that the police be given benefit of the doubt by serving them again and adjourned the matter to January 12, 2021.
