Kugbo: Where scrap dealers are mistaken for scavengers

Continued from previous page the traders follow to ensure they don’t run afoul of the law.

The chairman of the dealers said despite this measure, security operatives sometimes come after them.

“I have not bought a stolen vehicle,” Musa Ibrahim who also been in the business for 15 years said.

“We have an association and we have rules. Before we buy any car we must see the original documents and our union will verify it before permitting us to buy such vehicles,” he said.

He said the association also investigates its members for any wrong doing, and if found guilty, such a member would either be suspended or dismissed and should the punishment be beyond the association, they hand the case to the police.

Ibrahim said many of the dealers were cool headed contrary to wide spread speculations about their activities.

“Many don’t use drugs, they are responsible people with families,” he said.

Ibrahim who said he had more than six employees in his workshop assured that he doesn’t employ people of questionable character.

“People judge us from afar, we are good people,” he said.

While Ibrahim takes pride in the character of the dealers, Bilyaminu, who specialises in vehicle’s head lights, seat belts and plastic jars, left animal butchering at abattoirs for the business five years ago and since then he has not looked back.

While Ibrahim sells his wares to manufacturing companies in Kano, Kaduna and Lagos, Bilyaminu only sell on demand.

Due to the nature of the items, he said mechanical engineers patronise him. He said his experience at abattoirs has helped in ‘butchering’ vehicles as such he does not want to slow down.

He charges N2,000 to ‘butcher’ a car to pieces saying he earns more apart from selling plastics and other wares.

Another dealer who specialises in selling foot mats said the money they make from the business is what they use to carter for themselves.

The dealer who would not want to be mentioned said he just collected N300 for selling two pieces of foot mats,

“And the money finished immediately I collected it, because I needed to eat and settle others too,” he said.

Ibrahim said it takes few hours to ‘butcher’ a car.

“Mechanics loose the engine, vulcanizers remove the tyres, while there are people that remove other parts of the vehicle,” he said.

He said there is already a market for the pieces of the vehicle due to the proximity of mechanics and that people come from distance places to buy some motor parts from their workshops.

Ibrahim said the traders usually buy the vehicles from their owners especially cars that were involved in an accident and are beyond repair or some cars that are faulty.

He said after dismantling the vehicles, they sometimes make between N10, 000 and N15, 000 profits, which he said helps in meeting their needs.