By Hassan Lawan Koli, Gombe
In Gombe State, the Taxi Town Service Union has raised concerns over the increasing number of unclaimed belongings left behind by passengers.
Jewel Times learned that items ranging from clothes to food items and even hoes and cutlasses have been sitting in their office for months, yet owners have failed to retrieve them.
At the Gombe Taxi Town Service Office, shelves are stacked with forgotten items—some of them untouched for over five months. The union says passengers frequently leave their belongings behind but rarely return to claim same.
The secretary of the Gombe Taxi Town Service, Unit 6, Rabilu Alhassan described the incidents as alarming, while optimistic that with the recent opening of office by Unit 6 which carries passengers from Gombe main roundabout to Kwadon, passengers will knows where exactly to look for their forgotten belongings.
“We have clothes, cutlasses, bags of food, and even personal documents, but no one comes back for them, I urge passengers to come to our office located opposite our base at main round about axis to claim their belongings” Alhassan appealed.
According to the union, their policy allows them to keep unclaimed belongings for up to one year. After that, the items are either auctioned or donated to orphanages and less privileged individuals. However, they are urging passengers to check with their office before it reaches to that stage.
According Abubakar Babayo, Chairman of Gombe Taxi Town Service Unit 6, they use to donate items especially perishable and food commodities to less privileged and orphanage, however has an arrangement of paying back, when ever the claimant proves to be the actual owner of such items.
“Sometimes we find valuable things, but we can’t hold onto them forever. Whenever we auctioned or donated an item and they come to claim, we paid them the value of their belonging”. He said
“We advise passengers to double-check their belongings before leaving the taxi”. Babayo Added.
Residents and passengers are being encouraged to visit the Taxi Town Service office if they have lost anything recently as the union emphasizes that proper identification will be required to claim any item.