Security agencies have inveoted two Dangote trucks, loaded with 600, 50kg bags of cement each, and allegedly transporting the goods to Cameroon.
The vehicles and drivers were paraded before journalists at the headquarters of the Nigerian police in Yola, the Adamawa state capital on Friday.
Recall that the Adamawa State Governor, Ahmadu Fintiri had banned exportation of building materials across the country’s border through Adamawa by an executive order.
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According to the spokespersons for the governor and Adamawa Police Command, Humwashi Wonosikou and SP Suleiman Nguroje respectively, the trucks were intercepted transporting the good, a few kilometres before Jamtari, a border village between Nigeria and Cameroon.
“We’re here to address a disturbing trend in the state. As if the hardship on the people is not enough; there are some people who would want to test the will of the government and the government is saying such actions are unacceptable.
“We’re all living witnesses when the government came up with a policy of banning the movement of building materials across the country’s border. We’re a border state and we’ve had issues where items are transported across the border.
“But then the government, for building materials, would not want them transported out of the country. You can see behind me are trucks that were apprehended and brought here. They were intercepted by the military.
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“And it is believed that these products are being transported out of the country, because if you look at it, where is the community at the border area in Adamawa State that requires this amount of cement to be used?”
Nguroje, on his part said, “Personnel have been deployed throughout the state to enforce the government order, banning transportation of building materials across the border.”
Reacting to the allegation however, officials of the Yola depot of Dangote Cement, who were on the ground, denied that the products were being taken to Cameroon.
But in a dramatic twist, one Abiola Oyetunji, identified on the waybill as the contact person, expressed surprise that the truck had left the company’s depot in Yola.
According to her, the trucks can leave the depot only after the goods have been sold.
“I’ve not sold the cement yet; how could the trucks be moved out of the depot in Yola? The driver told me he was at the depot up to this time,” she added.
Dangote Cement Plc is a Nigerian publicly traded multinational cement manufacturer headquartered in Lagos. It is a subsidiary of Dangote Group, a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, founded by Aliko Dangote.
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