A baker who makes N400,000 monthly from selling bread to bandits and kidnappers in Kaduna State has been nabbed by operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
29-year-old Hassan Magaji told Vanguard that he is “from Galadimawa village and I am married with two wives and three children. I started the bakery business in 2018.”
Magaji operates his business with two others and thy specialise in supplying bread to bandits operating from Damari, Kidandan and Awala camps, in Kaduna State.
They were nabbed when the police led by Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari got information about them while on the trail of an informant of kidnappers who have been terrorising Zaria and its environs
The suspects said during the interview that they have been supplying bread to bandits at the Galadimawa, Kidandan and Awala camps.
Magaji led the operatives to his bakery where 150 loaves of bread were recovered.
Excerpts of his interview:
“I was an okada rider and was always losing my bike to bandits who sometimes ambushed us. Sometime ago, one of my relatives, Mustafa Magaji came to our area and thought me how to bake bread and with the little money that I saved, I started the business.
“I started with about N21,000 and now I make N400,000 a month. The boom in my business began when I started supplying bread to bandits. I was born and brought up here in Galadimawa and I know most of our young men who decided to become bandits.
“The community has a good relationship with them because they do not attack us. Initially when they started, they were raiding our villages but some of our community heads made them to understand that we were the cause of their problem, that we were poor villagers also struggling to survive.
“This is why they stopped attacking us and many of them started coming out to mingle with the villagers. I normally wandered close to that area of the forest where they were staying.
“It was during one of such trips in 2019 that I met Mohammed who bought 10 loaves of bread and took my phone number. I the bread for N200 each instead of the regular market price of N170.
“The following day he called me that the bread was so delicious and that I should bring 20 more loaves.
“On the day I took 20 loaves of bread to him, I met three others who were with him and they told me that they would like to buy in large quantity. I however told them that I didn’t have enough cash and we agreed that they would pay the entire money before baking the bread.
“They started with N20,000 worth of bread and gradually increased to N50,000 a day. After deducting the cost of ingredient, I make as much as N150,000 in a week.
“We have a meeting point close to their hideout as I’m not allowed to enter inside the bush. It is not even accessible with a car. They don’t threaten me because we mind our business.
“They were aware that people were avoiding them, that was why they normally encouraged me by paying for the bread before it was baked. I do not know about the kidnap business, I just sell bread and go.
“It was my workers that were arrested by the police while on their way to deliver the bread and they brought the police to my factory.
“I observed that whenever they kidnapped many people, like during the kidnap of those university students, the quantity of bread that they bought increased. During that period, I delivered up to N70,000 worth of bread everyday until recently when it dropped to N50,000.
“I have not benefited much except that I married a new wife and I was able to save money to take care of two wives. To stop banditry, government should recruit more security men. We prefer police because they know the job.”
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