Why Borno ranks highest among scrap producing states

Trailer loads of scrapped and abandoned irons from condemned and burnt down vehicles mostly affected by Boko Haram bombings across the state ,are daily cut to size, loaded onto  trucks and carted  to Kano and Lagos   ,from where they are sold to merchants who  buy and supply same to iron companies  which  use them in […]

Trailer loads of scrapped and abandoned irons from condemned and burnt down vehicles mostly affected by Boko Haram bombings across the state ,are daily cut to size, loaded onto  trucks and carted  to Kano and Lagos   ,from where they are sold to merchants who  buy and supply same to iron companies  which  use them in producing iron rods.
Alhaji Mansur Maigwangwan is a Kano based businessman, who, along with other business men from Kano, visits Borno State periodically to buy bombed and damaged vehicles through government auctions. He says “We are very careful in buying scraps especially those from individuals. We mainly buy destroyed or bombed  vehicles by means of a government auction.
“The police will obtain  a court order to auction the vehicles. The court will grant the order and we shall buy through auctions accompanied by receipts and relevant documents. We shall then cut the vehicles and Keke NAPEP to size and load them in trucks and transport them to Kano or Lagos , depending on the type of goods. At such auctions, the vehicles are sold in tens .It takes us several weeks trying to cut and transport them in batches.
“But when an individual  wants to sell his vehicle that was either bombed or burnt down by accidents or through  an insurgents’ attack, he needs  to have the particulars of the vehicle which must be accompanied with a police report. I cannot  estimate the number of truck  loads of scraps that we are transporting from Maiduguri daily ,because there are so many points from where we are moving them. I am only sure that Borno is now the highest scrap sourcing state in the country,” he said.

Bala Lili is a Maiduguri based scavenger who said he had been in  the business five years before the commencement of the insurgency in the region “Before the start of the insurgency, we were picking metals and plastic objects from refuse dumps, dustbins and even on the streets. When the insurgency became serious, people were not even allowed to dump refuse anywhere in the town, because the insurgents were burying bombs in the waste.
“Scraps became difficult to buy then. The police don’t sell the scraps in pieces to us, whenever they want to auction them. They sell them in bulk. Such big buyers always come from Kano to buy. It is only when a house is destroyed that women and children will bring some irons for us to buy. The highest quantity of scrap I ever gathered may be a pick-up load,” he said.
In Maiduguri, children are also into scavenging, but theirs is on a very low scale. Salisu Bashir, 15 said he goes round town picking empty cans of drinks like malt, coke and  fanta , adding, “When I get less than one kilogramme of the empty tins, I will be paid with biscuits or bubble gum. Empty tins weighing one kilogramme cost N20. It was N30 when the companies buying the empty tins were 3. Now that we have only one company left, they reduced the price to N20.
“My father doesn’t want me doing this business because he wants me to concentrate on my education .So, I go about with a bag as if I am going on an errand. But other children doing the business with the support of their parents, have even bought wheelbarrows which they are using for the business. Fortunately, I am getting money from it. There was a day I went to the venue of a ceremony and gathered many tins there. I made N80 from that place,” he said.
Teenagers in the state also frequent commercial tea sellers’ stands, where they pick several empty tins of milk, bournvita, coffee and the like for sale to dealers in  empty tins, which is fast becoming a brisk business among teenagers in the state.

When asked if scavengers in the state visit villages attacked and destroyed by insurgents to pick pieces of wreckages of metal objects, a Maiduguri based scavenger, Modu Isa said, “We do not do that here. Whenever there is any form of blast, fire incident or destruction, the police will remove the destroyed vehicles to a central dump where they keep all of them.
“They usually take record of them. I understand they always obtain court orders to auction them in bulk to major scrap dealers. Such dealers will buy, dismantle them into small sizes and take them away in trailers to Kano and other major towns ,where they are melted and turned into useful pans of different sizes,” he said.
Alhaji Musa Direba is one of the trailer drivers that transport such scraps to Kano. He told this reporter that despite the fact that the agents of the owners of the scraps do accompany them with all the auction papers and relevant receipts, it makes no difference, as security men on the way will always insist on collecting money from them.
“When the scraps are loaded into the trucks, we must drive down to Baga road in Maiduguri to weigh the vehicle. You know, the pieces of the scraps cannot be counted. What we do is to measure the weight of the vehicle before leaving, and do the same when we arrive our destination. That is one way of knowing the weight of the load which determines how much the merchant will pay for the vehicle. It also helps to know if the goods are tampered with on the way.
“A trip to Kano with  a full load like this attracts  between N220,000 to N250,000, depending on the weight of the load. The owner of the goods is responsible for paying the cost of loading and offloading. Sometimes the load will be mainly pans. It will not be too heavy until it is loaded high above the vehicle. But when the load consists of mainly axle or heavy irons, the load may look normal but too heavy,” he said.
Isa Adamu is an axe man who specializes in cutting  destroyed vehicles and   Keke NAPEPs  to size. He said in the value chain of scrap vehicles business, there are several people that feed from it  “When you buy a damaged vehicle or Keke NAPEP, you can invite us to where you bought the vehicle or to your workshop or base,  to go and cut it for you. You cannot buy a vehicle in Maiduguri ,for example ,and take it to the bush and ask us to go there and cut it for you, that is impossible. Even if we are to cut it in your premises or the premises of the person you bought it from, you must be there with us or keep a representative there while the job lasts.
“Where we have any doubt as to the true ownership of the vehicle, we do not touch that object unless a policeman is invited. That way, we as much as possible avoid handling stolen vehicles or those with doubtful ownership. We use axes  and sledge hammers  to cut the vehicles,” he said.