A bakery owner, Hassan Magaji, has been arrested by operatives of the Force Intelligence Response Team (IRT) for supplying bread to bandits operating from Damari, Kidandan and Awala camps, through Galadimawa along Birnin Gwari and Giwa Local Government Area of Kaduna State.
The 29-year-old Magaji, it was learnt, led the police to his bakery in Galadimawa village where 150 loaves of bread were found.
The suspect, who said he has two wives and three children, disclosed that he started the business in 2018 having previously been a commercial motorcyclist.
Magaji said, “I was an Okada rider and was always losing my bike to bandits who sometimes ambushed us. Some time ago, one of my relatives Mustafa Magaji came to our area and taught 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 not the cause of their problem; that we were poor villagers also struggling to survive.
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“This was 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 ten loaves of bread and took my phone number. I sold 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 that 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 be buying 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 am not allowed to enter inside the bush. It is not even accessible with 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 their 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 again.
“I have not benefitted much except that I married a new wife and I was able to save money to take care of two wives.”
Magaji disclosed that to stop banditry, “government should recruit more security men. We prefer police because they know the job.”