God is Good driver in another sleeping drama, abandons passengers in Gwagwalada

The management of God is Good Transport Limited has been caught up in the web of unprofessional conduct after one of their drivers fell asleep and abandoned their passengers along Lokoja-Abuja Road last Sunday.

The incident came barely two weeks after 10 persons were seriously injured after a driver with the company allegedly slept off on the steering along Benin-Lagos Road.

This reporter ran into the visibly angry Passengers close the University of Abuja gate,lamenting their ordeal.

When this reporter approached one of the passengers for comment, he said the driver abandoned them that he wanted to use the toilet for more than 20 minutes but was nowhere to be found.

He narrated what happened thus, “We were on our way to Enugu from Abuja. Not quite long that we left their Utako Bus Terminal; our driver while in transit was busy searching for something both in his pockets, pigeon hole, and on a jacket he wasn’t wearing.

“Several times, we’ll warn him to concentrate until we had a near collision with another bus. That was when we told him to clear by the road and search for whatever item that was distracting him, he heeded to our advice and parked by the road side.

“After some desperate search, he told us that he had found the said item. Not up to 10 minutes into the journey, our vehicle was swerving from one side of the road to the other and was jerking too. (I was sitting two seats behind the driver) I said to myself, maybe it’s a bad fuel or mechanical issues.

“Next was our bus veering off the road with speed and the driver returning it back. That was when a lady sitting behind the driver shouted on her voice to us and said ‘People! Sleep is disturbing our Driver oh!

“We all got concerned. We asked the driver what the problem was, he said nothing that he was okay. We advised him to put off the A/C and wind down his window so that fresh breeze could keep him conscious.

“My dear, while we were discussing, our driver was fighting sleep (shaking his head and legs, poking his head out of the window). All these attempts were in fruition. Driver was swerving left, right and braking unnecessarily on the road. Everybody was shouting that he should stop. Luckily, we got to a Filling Station at Gwagwalada where they usually refill their PMS. After the refill, he drove out of the pump and parked at the Filling Station, took his jacket and left (Bus was steaming). We all got down. After about 5 minutes I went and put off the engine.

“I called their Customer Service and levied my complaint; they felt concerned and promised to get back to me. About four other passengers on the same bus called them too and same reply. They later called me back and told me that they were sending another Driver to us who would take over from him.

“This was around past 9 am. While waiting for the new driver from their office our Driver came out (He abandoned us for 1 hour). When he came back he wanted us to continue the journey but we all refused.

“We told him the situation on ground and that a new driver was on his way here. I called our driver by the side and inquired from him what his problem was, and that why should he just abandon us. (while with him, I found out that his eyes were very reddish in colour).

“He told me that he went to the convenience to ease him self. I told him, that he is on drug. That it was the said drug that he was searching for all through our journey that he later saw on his jacket. I confronted him with these facts: we were not on A/C, weather was hot, you weren’t wearing any jacket before but now wore it to go to the convenience? (He never uttered a word).

“Our fear worsened when a fellow passenger, a Doctor told us that while at the GIGM Terminal in the morning, and that while using their convenience, he overheard a driver telling the other that he had not slept for two days now.

“That the previous day he went to Enugu and came back same day and he was billed to go to Enugu again today. That he was taken aback to see that it was the same driver that was driving us.

“We confronted our driver with that facts; he didn’t really deny that fact but tried to explain to us how it all happened. My dear, that man had not slept for two straight days. That was
why he resorted to drugs to keep fit.

“Till past 11am, the so called new driver from the Company was yet to meet us. Imagine from Utako to Gwagwalada more than 2 hours and no hope. I inquired from the doctor passenger with us on the possibility of us continuing the journey with same Driver knowing fully well that he is/was on drug.

“He told me that once the person takes that drug that he is yearning for, that the person will have energy to embark on whatever project he is facing.

I believe the problem with GIGM is that they are enslaving their drivers and probably not paying them well too.”

Meanwhile, when this reporter contacted the management of the company through one of their numbers, the responder who gave her name simply as Helen, said, “well, we are not aware.”

Another attempt to reach the head, Media Department of the company was futile as several calls put across to him were unreachable just as SMS sent to him was not replied as at the time of this report.