Chicken Man 2: Triple Safari: Togo, Mali. Guinea

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Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

The lad has some questions for Francis, which of course will be politely answered. The lad's family seems to be afflicted with malaria, so Francis will be sympathetic but will address health concerns of his own for the lad. Further, if the lad fails to get the package, perhaps the contents can be donated to the Cure Malaria fund?

Quote:

I realised the deadline date still remains July 24th which is next week..My headache is having to raise money to meet up the Malian trip, I am very concern if i can make the deadline because now my family and friends who supported me to Togo saw me come back empty handed and skinny says i should forget the whole thing.that it was God that saved me in Togo that the driver didnt kidnap me and kill me just to run away with the package.

Meanwhile, apart from people discouraging me to make the Mali trip, i will realy want clarification on the contents in the package,
1.Is the money Juju saw on the package been tampered with..Is it still intacts.
2.Have they taken inventory of the contents to make sure all the electronics,phone and computer devices are intact.
3. Following the sad ordeal i went through in Togo, could not the shipping company make arrangement to atleast send me part of my compensation maybe half of it for me to hasten the trip to Mali.
4. Is it possible for pitts logistics to hand the delivery to another company.

This are many more of the above questions bothering my minds.. I will be glad to hear you answer them.

Thank you for all the effort.
Regards,
Lucky Gattah
PS; I GOT HOME TO FIND MY DAUGHTER DOWN WITH MALARIA, MY WIFE SAME THING,WHEN I TOLD HER OF MY EXPERIENCES IN TOGO, THEY ALL BURST INTO CRYING..NOW MY FAMILYS ARE MOCKING ME BUT I KNOW I SHALL SURPRISE THEM ALL WITH GOOD NEWS SOON.

***********************************

Francis replied as follows. He cannot commit to anything at present since a lot of issues must be answered directly by the shipper. However it is dialogue so that is at least lends hope for more action, however unlikely.

Quote:

I am sorry your family's health is not the best right now. Our thoughts and prayers are extended to you. I do hope things improve as nothing weighs on one's mind like illness in the family. Right now I am going back to my cardiologist for an update on tests, but it appears angioplasty is required soon. So we all must put our chins up and carry on!

Reagarding your four questions I will answer in order.
1. & 2. I thought the driver took some money and asked the company for an update on the contents I am not sure if I sent you the note I sent them or not, but I asked for an inventory of contents and condition report. I don't want you to be getting laptops that don't work for example. I still do not have that report.
3. Your compensation comes out of the pockets of the shipping company so to receive any/all of it in advance, you will have to inquire with them.
4. Given the sensitive nature of the contents I am hesitant to entrust this to anyone else. I will make inquiries though and get back to you with an answer, not just my opinion.

Hopefully all will be well soon.

In another bait I'm running with him, everyone is healthy and there is no malaria.

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 11:43 am

My thoughts:

- Joojoo opened the parcel and found the money ... he spent only $200, but the rest remained intact.
- Joojoo told at the Police that he wanted to share all the money with Lucky and then flee to Burkina-Faso. (Probably the idiot regrets now that he did not go to Joojoo) Laughing

- All the sent products are in the parcel, they were inventoried in Accra (before the parcel reaches Bamako). Everything is okay.
- PLog is worried about the existence of that large amount of money, because "money's transport" is banned and illegal.
- For this reason, the management of the company decided to "keep the money's secret" provided that the delivery is made in accordance with the Regulation in the smallest details: only to the Receiver person, directly from the warehouse, under video surveillance.
- The amount of money offered as moral compensation ($ 1,000) is "unofficially" paid out of local branch funds, and PLog does not want this to be made public. So, any "official" payments (bank account, Western Union, etc.) are excluded.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Francis will respond to the lad later, this gives the shipper time to address his questions......which will then be fed to the lad.

* the driver must have been high or drunk if he only took $200. The lad will not be compensated for that amount by the shipper since it is illegal to put the cash there in the first place. He should count his blessings it was not more.
* after all that has gone on, the company is not reporting the cash in the package as a personal favour to Francis, the church and given all the lad has endured, is willing to bend the rules to demonstrate good faith with him. It is part of the 5 Star Service.
* yes, cash only for compensation. Cash lets the company off the hook for any bad publicity too.

Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 12:06 pm

Yes, yes and yes!... for all those three lines.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Francis now has details to pass along to the lad. Hopefully he buys into the story again. Weirdly, he seems to believe in the package, the church and Francis, but is disgusted with the delivery people. That remnant of trust keeps him going........

Quote:

Son:

I rec'd an update from P***. The contents are intact as far as the electronics go and the personal items like the G***** Farms coffee mugs etc are there in their original packages. There is still cash there and it appears about $200 is missing. The belief is that the driver was either stupid or drunk and took little. He prob. had plans to do more of course, but in his state of mind, did not fully implement his plans.

There is an issue with the money inside in that apparently that should not be there is such quantities. P*** has done us all a favour by continuing to handle this package and they have said they are extending this courtesy as a personal favour to you. They will not touch the money, it stays where it is with the package. That said, they do not wish to involve another delivery service as they would have to inventory the contents, and that includes the money.

Regarding the compensation, I suggest you can contact Clyde directly but what I was told was that this money is cash only and is paid out of local office funds. They do not make such payments public nor leave a paper trail to them. The good news is that this is cash and untraceable for you (no taxes!) but P*** will only hand it over in person. It is bad pubilcity for them to make such payments, so it is always done face to face and quietly. You can ask Clyde for more details if you wish.

I hope that answers the questions now. Keep me updated.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 5:29 am

Friday

06.30 - Nothing from our chicken-man in the last 24 hours... he did not communicate with my characters.
===

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 6:04 am

Only 1 email to Abdul yesterday. He sees the cancellation of the Sexy Pic ty transaction as a good thing..as the Imam will now send the money to Lagos. He will get some bad news about that today.

Meanwhile, things are stirring @Plog

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 7:11 am

We have a new character in our story: Chris Baccone (Bertje) - Director in the Customer Care Department. Laughing

07.00 - Chris Baccone wrote to Claude, Mike and Francis:

Quote:

Gentlemen,

I have been reading reports about the recent shitshow of the Accra team. I can not believe what I am seeing here. Please tell me that this has been highly exaggerated in the memo's.

I want to find out first hand what the hell went on there, and what is being done to resolve things.

@Claude: why did we have a delivery in Togo? You know we don't have a license there. What is the TrackingID for the parcel? Who's the recipient? Do we have his statement? Who are the morons involved in this epic clusterfuck?

@Francis: I 'm just finding out about this dumpster fire. I am doing everything I can to figure out what happened, how it happened and how to make things right. No amount of apologies can make up for the accumulations of errors here, but I want to express my sincerest apologies, not only from the Company, but from myself too. You have been a client with us for a long long time, and I will do everything in my power to set things straight. Let's be very clear: heads will roll.

Let me know if I can do anything for you.

Kind regards,
Chris Baccone,
Director, Customer Relations

===

08.04 - One hour later, Claude responds to all:

Quote:

Hi Chris, good morning!
Let me try to answer punctually:
- The package identification number is # TRK938765***, and The Receiver is Mr. Lucky Montana Gottoh (from Lagos - Nigeria).
- For reasons beyond our control, Mr. Gottoh was not present at the festive ceremony in Casablanca, where the other 2 parcels sent by Francis' church were distributed.
- We have decided (and I take full responsibility) to try to deliver to Mr. Gottoh and give him more variants, explaining very clearly what are the cities in which we already have distribution centers.
- Mr. Gottoh did not like any of our variants, but he agreed to come to Lome (Togo) and take over the parcel to be sent to him from our operational center in Accra.
- Mr. Osuaze (our Ghana Regional Manager) has appointed a local driver who left the company's van from Accra to Lome. Things have become complicated in the border area due to the togolese police forces.
- In Africa things are extremely complicated and we can never know the whole truth, because people tend to exaggerate and present the facts in an extremely subjective manner.
- Still, the facts are clear; the parcel distribution was not made and the local driver tried to steal the parcel. Intervention forces have recovered the package and the driver is now in custody of the Togolese police and awaiting the completion of the official investigation.
- As far as we are concerned, the Accra branch was suspended and we are trying to reorganize everything there. Mr. Osuaze presented his resignation, which was accepted.
- The package was moved to the operational center of Mali (in Bamako) at the request of our client Mr. Gottoh. A compensation payment (to cover past and future expenses) was approved in the last Board meeting (3 days ago).
- NO, we have not received Mr. Gottoh's official Statement until now. In fact, he has ceased to communicate with us since Wednesday (after expressing his desire to take over the parcel from our Mali center).
- At this moment, the package # TRK938765*** was handled by the Regional Manager of Mali (Mr. Somoila) and all necessary steps were taken to ensure the security of the package.
- Our customer Mr. Gottoh was informed about all of these things.

If I can be helpful with other details, please let me know.
Claude

===

09.20 - Our moron is alive! He just sent a message to Clyde (only to him!):

Quote:

Hello Gentlemen,
Its been a while i have written, i guess you all know i was in Lome,
Togo sometimes last week in the hope that your deliveryman M Joojoo
Akolani will make the delivery,but i am sure you are aware of the the
bad experiences Mr Joojoo put me through.

I ran after Mr Joojoo in all of the four locations he wanted me to meet
him for the delivery put each time i get there he never shows up,i was
lucky he didnt kidnap or kill me while i was in Atakpame because that
place is an isolated area..Apart from the disappointments from Mr
Joojoo, i was forced out of my hotel because i couldnt pay for it,so,i
slept the street of Togo for four days.slept the police cell for two
days and even owed two taxi drivers.

Those are sad experiences i dont want to encounter ever again in my
life. Now i am in Nigeria and i realised i still need to travel to
Bamako,Mali to get my package...well, i can try make the trip to Mali
but i hope this time around i wont be put under the same inhumane
treatment like the one i experienced in Togo.
My Togo experience is such a bad experience.
Hopefuly by Monday or Tuesday i should be available in Mali, i will
alert you and mr. Somoila once i am there.
Yours faithfully,

Lucky Gottoh.

===

11.15 - Two hours later, Claude responds to Lucky... Francis, Mike and Chris are in CC:

Quote:

Hi Lucky, I' glad to hear you again!

First of all, I wish to express deep regret over all the unfortunate events in Togo. Simply, an unfavorable situation and a long string of bad luck made that terrifying experience possible.
If you had chosen from the very beginning one of the locations where we have distribution centers, things would have been altogether different. (We know, it is always their fault! Right?)
Infrastructure and internal organization are well set up, so episodes like those in Togo are easily avoided.

Your situation is already well known at the top level of company management, and Mr. Chris Baccone (as Senior Officer in the Customer Care Department) has decided to personally engage in solving this problem. Perhaps there are already concrete discussions about the good organization of delivery in Bamako. The Regional Manager there (Mr. Somoila) has received firm orders in this regard and you will be treated as a VIP Guest.

I would very much like to be present in Bamako early next week so that we know each other personally. Perhaps we will be able to coordinate ourselves so as not to miss this opportunity. Please keep in touch with our local manager and also with Mike Neuber (the one who coordinates the operational activity) and send all the necessary information in time for the local team to be ready. They'll need to know what airline you're going to get there. Day and time of arrival. All the necessary details.

Cheers,
Claude

===

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Francis awoke to find many messages and is excited that there is still a true sense of belief from the lad, and a real chance at a second holiday. An all expenses reimbursed trip to Mali. This is good news indeed.
Just to keep the momentum going, Francis asks the new dynamo Mr. Baconne to confirm the Mali trip details. Under the illusion of putting the lad in control of events, the confirmation of the carrot on the stick and the approaching shipping deadline, will hopefully get this lad moving.

Quote:

I have just read many messages which arrived in my inbox and am encouraged by what I have read. I must admit that up until now I have read many words but seen little action. Now I see there an iron fist behind the velvet glove, and I welcome this.

In reading over these messages, Mr B****, you asked if you could do anything for me. Yes, an emphatic YES. As the director of Customer Relations can you please confirm in writing some proposals I discussed? I list them below but want them confirmed in writing so the Togo episode is not repeated.

* he is to receive $1000 USD compensation in cash. This will be given to him by a senior P*** official personally when he arrives in Mali?
* no more arranging meetings with drivers? He is to be met at the airport and taken to a good hotel at company expense?
* depending on his arrival time, he will have the option to receive his package at the hotel or be taken to the depot to collect it personally?
* P*** officials (not just some driver on duty that day) will return him to the airport for his flight home?

If you could confirm these facts for me I would greatly appreciate it. These will put my mind at ease knowing Mr. G***** will have no expenses while in Mali. His transportation, accommodation, and food will be covered by PITH officials? This will avoid the last scneario of trying to meet a driver at a border crossing. This puts him back in control of events. (actually it puts him at the mercy of the shipping company staff, but whatever....)

I look at the lengthy alpha-numeric package code and think what a wonderful thing technology is for shipping efficiently. However, what has been lost here has been a sense of accountability and the fact that real humans are in a state of upset because the "human factor" has been lost.

Mr B****, I am confident, upon confirmation of the above, that we will finally address all components of this equation.

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 3:41 pm

14.25 - Our moron writes to Claude:

Quote:

Dear Mr Claude,
I am not taking flights to Mali, I will be coming by bus.This is
because i cannot afford 300usd as cost of airplane.except if you want
to send that to mefor my flight cost from my compensation.
I intend arriving Mali by Tuesday morning or less but surely,i will
let Mr Somoila knows of my arrival in Bamako.
Thank you so much for eveything.

Yours sincerely,
Lucky Gottoh.

===

16.23 - Two hours later, Claude responds:

Quote:

Hi Lucky,
Of course yes, everything is all right. I hope to see you in Bamako. (Indeed, we all want to see him there!)
Please contact the local manager for the precise details of the exact day and time of your arrival there.

Cheers,
Claude

===

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Incredible! Great reading! Hopefully he will find accommodations in Mali to his liking. Is Clyde meeting him at the bus station with a sign "LUCKY" ?

Posted: Fri Jul 19, 2019 4:26 pm

Google estimates the bus ride as roughly 40 hours with "inconsistent" timings. I found a blog from 2009 about somebody's experiences with that route, and it doesn't look good:
lagos-bamako.blogspot.com

"I'd say today is not our lucky day"
"We are little more than prisoners of war and the hostility is unmistakeable"
"The ambiance is shoddy and sinister"
"thuggish-looking types"
"drugged-up motor park gangsters"

I wouldn't be surprised if the lad had some difficulties when he arrived. If only he could find our nice air-conditioned office where Claude is relaxing.

Wannabe Baiter Joined: 28 Oct 2018 Posts: 90

Amazing!!

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:31 am

Yesterday.

Abdul to our friend

Quote:

Dear Mr. Lucky,

I am thanking yuo for the email.

Things not going good for me. The boy is much sick and needing many doctors. I am being in hospital almost every hour .

The hospital has much bills and I am already spending all the money mistre Francis is giving me. Even have selling instruments. Mine Imam is cancelling the transfer, is true. He take money to hospital for paying mine bills. I am sorry, he did doing without saying me.

I have no money to sparing. If there was being, I will send to yuo. But I can not doing so.

I am sorry from my heart's bottom.

Yuo friend
Abdul

The reply

Quote:

Abdul
I am sorry to hear you are still in the hospital.
I am however surprised t hear your Imam did cancelled the money mearnt for me.
I have trusted he will resend it but ,Now,i will have to stay here in
Nigeria and forget the package.
Too bad.
Lucky

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:12 am

Yesterday - 21.11 (Lagos local time) - Our Lucky responds to the last Mike's email.

Quote:

Thanks i received your messages.
Ok, I hope to be in Bamako next Monday.
I shall travel by Road, once i'm about departing Nigeria i shall let Mr Somoila know.

Thanks again.

Lucky Gottoh

- obviously he believes in the parcel and wants to come and take it before the deadline (July 24).
- now, he's trying to get money for the trip (that "easy" money from the Imam of Abdul).
- probably it is not his only "source of money", but of course Abdul's money would be "the best option" for him (because he will not have to return them back).
===

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:53 pm

Saturday: no comms....he is probably preparing for his lovely bustour of West-Africa : jump_4_joy

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2019 9:04 pm

Saturday 21.36 local nigerian time:

Quote:

Mr.Claude,
I shall be making the Mali trip from tomorrow,Sunday by road..i
understand this journey takes 36hours so,hopefully i should be
available in Mali say Monday evening if my calculation is right.

Meanwhile, i understand i shall be welcomed by the Malian regional
manager when i arrived ali,but i have lost Mr Simailas email, can you
please send me his email Simailas email or phone numbers to be able to
reach him once i am there.
I anticipate your urgent reply.
Yours faithfully,

Lucky Gottoh

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Francis is excited.....he loves when lads travel. He replied:

Quote:

Son this is good news. Godspeed you safely. Please check in here but also with the company so they can make the arrangements required. I will let the committee know.
My heart has some minor but treatable blockages and I go in for an angioplasty this week. It is a simple procedure but that is easier for the doctor to say than for the patient to hear.
If I am under the weather for recovery, I will appoint a church member as back up contact for you.
I hope your family is much improved too.

Since the lad turns to Francis when there is a crisis, Francis has timed his heart procedure to occur right as things are about to go south for the lad. Francis will appoint a church member to be a temporary contact, but this person will be rather more useless than Francis and unable to make decisions.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

The lad just sent this to Francis

Quote:

I am at the bus terminal in Lagos, Nigeria.
I have just booked for a seat. The bus is heading from Lagos, Nigeria
to Ougadougou in Burkina Faso.
I shall take another bus from Burkina faso to Mali..This is going to
be long trip.
My family are not really getting better,still i just had to make this
trip so as to meet the deadline.
Thanks for everything and i wish you good-luck in your medical procedures.

Hopefully he will have a good trip. In a parallel bait I'm running with him with different characters, his family is doing well.

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 8:03 am

Sunday

08.55 - Claude writes to Lucky:

Quote:

Hi Lucky,

The airline linking Larnaca (Cyprus) with Tripoli (Lybia) leaves in a matter of hours, so I'm packing the last things. I will arrive in Tripoli in this afternoon and, tomorrow morning, I will fly to Bamako with another plane; where I hope to arrive immediately after 14.00. Where are you now? I have not received any messages from you in the last 24 hours.

I hope you're already in contact with Mr. Somoila, our local manager in Mali. It would be useful for you to communicate permanently with him and send all of your receipts to him, so Mr. Somoila can assess the situation and prepare your arrival in Bamako properly. We will meet at the Bamako operational center tomorrow afternoon. I wish you a pleasant trip!

Cheers,
Claude

===

- In his last message to Claude, our "no Lucky" man said that "i have lost Mr Simailas email, can you please send me his email Simailas email or phone numbers to be able to reach him once i am there."
- Obviously, Claude will miss the tomorrow's plane, so he will be stuck in Tripoli for the next 2-3 days.
- Our idiot did not get in touch with the local manager in Mali (Mr. Somoila), so he does not know about the imminent arrival. Laughing

- So, the local manager will not be present tomorrow in Bamako, but he will be somewhere else... in the north of the country.
- Of course, the local manager can send someone to meet our Lucky. Of course, that person does not appear or communicate with Lucky.
- The manager promises to check the situation and come back with details. It will be already "tomorrow". Laughing

===

12.45 - Few hours later, Francis wrote to all:

Quote:

Good morning to you gentlemen:

My concerns are when we discussed Mr Gottoh's arrival in Mali previously, that he was to be "worry free" and leave the arrangements to the company. Now that he has chosen ground transportation instead of air, I just want to confirm that he has accommodations, local transportation and of course, resources on hand, to make sure this goes smoothly.
I will update the congregation later this morning and ask that we all keep communicating in a timely manner and prevent troubles rather than fixing them.

Francis

13.49 - Claude responds to all:

Quote:

Dear gentlemen,

By no later than tomorrow afternoon, I will be present in Bamako for the meeting with Mr. Gottoh. In half an hour I'll be on the plane to Tripoli and tomorrow morning I'll get to Mali. Probably Mr. Gottoh is already in contact with Mr. Somoila. Of course, Mr. Gottoh has to communicate with the local manager for the details necessary to organize the entire visit so that our client be completely satisfied.

Cheers,
Claude

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 5:30 pm

Mike has heard nothing from the lad, so he will assume that everything is going smoothly with the Mali plan and that there are no complaints. That may change. According to Google Maps, it would take about 18 hours by car to get to Ouagadougou from Lagos, and I imagine buses are a bit slower; we should then expect to hear about his transfer within the next 12 hours. If he shows us his bus ticket to prove he transferred in Ouagadougou, that will count as a safari before he even gets to Bamako. Things appear to be going smoothly so far, so hopefully we get definite confirmation soon.

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 6:42 pm

Chris and Abdul haven't heard from our hero either. For the Togo adventure he had to get a new SIM card to be online. Let's hope the silence is an indication he is on the move without access to the interwebs.

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 6:52 pm

Holy smokes. Mali? That's far. He's on the trip of a lifetime. Amazing work guys!

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

No word from our happy wanderer today but Francis is preparing for his heart procedure tomorrow. He sent greetings to the lad and gave him the contact info of Larissa, the head of the Outreach Committee. (She got the position due to age not ability). Anyway, this removes his "go to" church contact right at the moment of scheduled crisis.

Quote:

Dear Son:

A big day for both of us is coming up and I'm taking a moment now to pass on a bit of information, "just in case". I go into the hospital tomorrow morning for my procedure and if all goes well, will be discharged in 24 hours. I know statistically it will be fine, but my nerves are a little tense.
Nevertheless, your travel and my procedure are for the same time so I am giving you the contact name of the head of our committee Larissa S*****. ***********@gmail.com
She will handle any questions that arise and will pleased to hear updates. She is the one who had the Sunday school children do the art work pictures of chicken farming for you, so she will love to know they are well rec'd.

You wrote to me yesterday that you were leaving Lagos last night. With the time zone differences and delays in email, I am guessing the first leg of your journey will soon be over. I include a short Irish poem (being of Irish descent I'm partial to it!) which covers both of us as we "journey".....different paths but still journeys.

May the road rise up to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of His hand

Please send updates as you can as I'll be out of commission soon for a bit.

Hopefully the lad will play along.................

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2019 8:23 pm

Bamako is such a nice place.

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