Suspects: Bandits who kidnapped university students are our best customers

Juliana Francis

 

Operatives of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) and Intelligence Response Team (IRT) have arrested four men who allegedly used to connive with bandits to kidnap and terrorise residents of Kaduna State.

 The suspects, identified as Abubakar Ibrahim, Auwal Abubakar, Hassan Magaji and Ibrahim Kabiru, were arrested on June 8, at about 5: pm. They were arrested after a tip-off from a reliable informant.

 Police alleged that during interrogation, the suspects confessed to have been among those supplying bread to bandits at Galadimawa, Damari, Kidandan and Awala camps, in Kaduna State.

 The police further said: “The suspects led detectives to a bakery, where 150 loaves of bread were recovered. One of the suspects, Auwal Abubakar, stated that they used to give information to bandits, which the bandits work on, leading to the abductions and cattle rustling within Zaria axis.”

 

One of the suspects, Hassan Magaji, 29, married with two wives and three children, said that he started bakery business in 2018. Before then, he used to be a commercial cyclist, but was always attacked by bandits and his earnings taken. He became a baker after one of his relatives, Mustafa Magaji, taught him how to operate a bakery.

 

Hassan said: “I had been able to save some money and I used it to start the bakery business. I started with N21, 000. My business began to boom after I started supplying bread to bandits. Initially, I used to go around our community to sell the bread in small quantities, luckily, I met a guy called Mohammed.  The community has a good relationship with the bandits because they do not attack us. When they first started operations, they used to raid our villages, but some of our community leaders made them to understand that we were not the cause of their problem. We are just poor villagers, struggling to survive.”

He recollected that it was when he was going round to sell his bread that he ran into Mohammed, whom he later discovered was one of the bandits operating in the village. Mohammed bought 10 loaves of bread, and would later collect his phone number.

Hassan said: “I sold the bread to Mohammed for N200, as against the regular N170. The following day, Mohammed called, saying that the bread was delicious and then asked for another 20 loaves. The day I took the 20 pieces to him, he was with three men. They told me that they would like to be buying in large quantities. I told them I didn’t have enough cash for such a large number. We then agreed that they would pay the entire money before I bake. They started with N20, 000 worth of bread, and gradually increased it to N50, 000 a day. After removing the cost of ingredient, I make as much as N150, 000 in a week.”

 

Hassan said that soon after, he and the bandits had a meeting close to their hideout, but he was not allowed into the bush to know the location of their camps. He, however, remembered that the roads into the bush, was not accessible with car. Whenever he brings bread, he would stop at a certain place and distribute it to them.

 

He said: “They didn’t threaten me because I minded my business. They are aware that people avoid them, which is why they normally encouraged me by paying for the bread before I even baked it. I do not know about their kidnap business; I just sell my bread and leave.”

 

He said that he became a guest of the police after police arrested some of his workers.   Speaking on the bandits, he said: “I observed that whenever these bandits kidnapped people, like during the time they kidnapped those university students, the quantity of bread they bought increased. That period, I delivered up to N70, 000 worth of bread every day. If government truly wants to stop banditry, they have to recruit more security agents.”

 

Hassan’s partner in crime, Abubakar, 21,  a farmer, who is married and has a daughter, said that he got tired of waiting for his crops to grow and decided to look for another source of making money. He got a job in a bakery.

He said: “I started working for Magaji three months ago and he pays N500 every day, along with a loaf of bread. My duty is to take part in the baking of the bread and then go to different communities to sell them. Yes, our major customers are the bandits and yes, we know they are bandits. Everyone knows them. They don’t cover their faces and we know their villages. The only thing is that they now live in the forest. They do not have families. It’s only some of their commanders that are married and have children. I didn’t know it was a crime to sell bread to them. Yes, I know they used to kidnap people, but I’m not part of them. It was at the station police told me I was encouraging the bandits in their activities by selling bread to them.”

The youngest suspects, Ibrahim, 17, said that his parents forced him out of secondary school and made him to be going to farm with them.  

He added: “I have been saving money to buy a motorcycle, but it’s never enough. Luckily, I got a job at Magaji bakery a year ago. I go into the community to sell the bread. Those bandits are our best customers. Rather than go round the villages, urging people to buy our bread, we just deliver everything to them and go home to rest.”