Thay particular night, Bayo my younger brother had a little sleep. He was on edge .he could recall what happened in his place of work that led to him being sacked. His company was into oatmeal importation and supplies.
Bayo was one of the driver's assistants. The truck assigned to them could carry more than 600 bags of oats. His colleague named John would cut out some bags of oats whenever they were on a trip. This would lead to some bags being less filled than the other bags. He would gather the oats for sale and act like nothing happened.
The young man would stitch up the holes in the bag them and sell them to unsuspecting customers.
He would then share the money with his fellow driver. He would also give to Bayo who was unwilling to collect at first but had to since he had no choice but to join the game.
Bayo would tell John that he was uninterested in collecting dubious money but John would laugh it off and tell him that it is "work and chop".
This fraud continued over time, and the companies that bought the oats would send in credit notes because they had paid before delivery but the company never let Bayo and John know about it.
Bayo and his team never knew that after their delivery, the company would refund some money to the suppliers.
When it got to the point where the company could no longer tolerate the crime, they dismissed John and his team. It was apparent that they were fraudulent.
Other drivers and their assistants always delivered their consignments intact to their customers . The management of company deemed it a waste of time to set up a panel to investigate the role each one of them played since there was enough complaints from Tope, the company's accounts officer was the one who filed numerous complaints against John's team.
Due to his losing his job, Bayo ended up in the labour market soon enough. When he could not secure another employment, he settled for riding a motor cycle on hired purchase but it was not as fulfilling as the driving job.
He would often come back home dissatisfied and angry.
One day I asked him he always complained about his new work and that was when he opened up to me
After Bayo poured out all that transpired to me, I asked him a question..
"Bayo did you not know what those drivers and the assistants were into? Why did you choose not to report them?"
"What was the reason behind the slience when you knew this slience would cost you your job?"
After a long pause, he replied. "Sister I chose not to report them because the driver and the other assistants could have dealt with me in such a regrettable way if i had attempted to expose them.
"Ah, that was a weak excuse at the deartriment of your job" I told him. So you preferred to stay out of a job than to say the truth right?
He looked at me wordlessly. His eyes were sunken and almost lifeless.
I believe he was pondering on what could have happened if had exposed his colleagues to the company's management.
That expecrience has never left his memory till date.
Thank you all for reading
Image generated from Ai