Bauchi Police bust illicit fertilizer ring, Five arrested

The Bauchi State Police Command has successfully dismantled an illicit fertilizer production operation, apprehending five suspects and recovering a range of production machinery along with adulterated fertilizer products.

According to the Command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), CSP Mohammed Ahmed Wakil, the operation began on May 10, 2025, at approximately 1300 hours.

Muhammad Abubakar was initially traced and apprehended in the market in possession of six bags of suspected adulterated fertilizer and forty-six bottles of adulterated herbicides.

A subsequent search warrant executed at his residence uncovered numerous incriminating items, including: thirty-eight empty cartons of assorted herbicides, fourteen NPK sacks, nine Indorama sacks, one empty jerrycan, five spoons, charcoal stoves, a bundle of nylon, and sacks containing Ztars and lambda powder.

During interrogation, Abubakar confessed to the charges and implicated Abubakar Umar, a resident of the same vicinity, as an accomplice.

In a related incident on May 14, 2025, at about 1700 hours, the Command received intelligence from a concerned citizen regarding the illegal production and sale of adulterated fertilizer at a shop owned by 32-year-old Anas Abubakar, located along Gombe Road.

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Upon receiving this information, a team of operatives was promptly dispatched to the scene, leading to the arrest of Anas Abubakar, who was found in possession of forty-four and a half bags of adulterated fertilizer.

During his interrogation, Anas Abubakar admitted to purchasing the illicit products from 24-year-old Abdulrahaman Muhammad of Bakaro Quarters, Bauchi. Although he denied selling the adulterated fertilizer, he acknowledged supplying raw materials, specifically molded kaolin used in the adulteration process.

He further stated that he obtained these materials from 27-year-old Ziya’u Bala of the Gudum Hausawa area in Bauchi.

Ziya’u was subsequently traced and arrested, and his cooperation with detectives led them to Natsira Hamlet via Kangare Village, where his illicit production facility was discovered.