Hardship: Northerners turn to cargo trucks for cheaper journeys despite risks.
He was travelling in search of greener pastures, hoping that being in the city would bring opportunities The post Hardship: Northerners turn to cargo trucks for cheaper journeys despite risks appeared first on Vanguard News .
By Maryam Abdul-Aziz Usman, Damaturu POTISKUM — Despite Dangote’s ban on unauthorised passengers, Northerners still board its trucks to escape rising transport fares.
In July 2026, Dangote Industries Limited offered N500,000 for credible information on illegal haulage, including unauthorised passenger transport, but travellers in Potiskum say rising fares leave them with few affordable options.
Baba Iyatu, a middle-aged woman, was perched atop a Dangote compressed natural gas (CNG)-powered truck, among dozens of other passengers preparing to leave Potiskum, Yobe State. Her destination was Niger State, where her daughter had just given birth. But with the cost of conventional transport increasingly difficult to afford, reaching her daughter meant accepting the uncertainties of travelling on a truck designed to carry goods, not passengers. Baba Iyatu and the others knew the company prohibited unauthorised passengers on its trucks.
MSEApp News is publishing an original rewrite of this tip for readers, based on reporting associated with Vanguard.