Gombe residents at war with businessman over loss of N102m invested in his grain business

Seven years ago, Hamad Muhammad Kagamu started the business of buying and selling grains with N170,000 as capital. Along the line, about 20 other people joined him in the business as dormant partners and with their money he grew it into a multi-million naira business about seven years later when he was only 35 years old.

Although he had no western education, he was successful partly because he is well versed in Hausa and Arabic languages. He travels from Nigeria to Chad, Cameroon and Niger buying soyabeans, beniseeds and other grains in trucks for sale to companies in Kano.

At the beginning of the business about seven years ago, he was short of funds until the 20 investors aforementioned came in to support the business with their funds.

The contract between him and the investors looked simple, lucrative and attractive as he paid them between N100,000 and N200,000 as returns on their investments every week.

Even the investors that earned less than N100,000 per month had no reason to complain so they still felt that Kagamu’s business was worth investing in since they did not have to sweat before they got whatever accrued to them.

Consequently, he was able to attract quite a sizeable number of investors ranging from ordinary street hawkers to top civil servants, retirees and varsity and polytechnic lecturers until he started running into trouble about two years ago.

He said: “I started going to the market with the sum of N170,000 seven years ago.

“Then, I was doing the business alone. But later, these 20 people joined me.

“When I was doing it alone, a lot of people were happy with me because the business was successful. That was how they started giving me money to expand the business and give them profit.

“As we were doing the business, the money started growing from N170,000 to N1 million, N5 million, N10 million to over N100 million.”

When he noticed that his capital had grown remarkably, he started going as far as Cameroon to buy soyabeans and beniseeds.

Trouble however, began at the point that Kagamu hit on the idea of going beyond the nation’s borders to countries like Cameroon and Chad to buy cash crops for sale to some companies in Kano.

To achieve his new business objective, he needed an international passport. It was in the process of obtaining one that he fell into the hands of fraudsters who defrauded him of millions of naira.

Soon, he was no longer able to pay some of his business partners and investors their monthly returns.

He started initially by delaying payments until he was unable to pay them for months.

Unfortunately, he did not tell any of them about his travails or provide any explanation for breaching the contracts he had with them.

Soon, the investors, many of whom had borrowed the sums they invested from banks or cooperative societies, could not take the delay anymore. Some of the investors were said to have sold their houses and other landed properties and to invest in Kagamu’s produce business.

Initially, the aggrieved investors lodged a complaint with the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps (NSCDC) in Gombe, asking the command to help them retrieve more than N40 million from Kagamu.

Unfortunately, he was said not to have cooperated with the command when its men commenced investigation into the matter.

At the press briefing addressed by the Commandant, Waziri Goni, Kagamu refused to respond to the questions posed to him by journalists and NSCDC men. He also did not allow the journalists to video or take camera shots of him as he opted to lie on the ground face down and rebuffed all entreaties for him to get up.

However, as NSCDC men intensified investigation, more and more of the aggrieved investors surfaced until the sum he owed them rose to N102 million at the last count.

The Commandant of the NSCDC in Gombe State, Malam Waziri Goni, alleged that Kagamu took some of the money he owed the creditors between the months of January and March this year, promising them heavy returns.

“However, months after the business transaction expected to take just 24 hours, Kakamu refused to return both money and profit to the contributors.

“He took the money from them as shareholders in a produce business which has been going on for the past seven years but later refused to pay back both money and profit.

“When he was accosted, he started giving all sorts of excuses until he later confessed that the money was sent to someone in Yola who is already at large.

“He also said one of his colleagues is in Cameroon dealing in CFA money exchange.

“We are conducting investigation on it already, and very soon, he will appear in court and face trial according to law,” Goni said.

According to him, Gombe State and the North East in general has high risk of fraudulent business transactions being carried out by mostly youths who are duping unsuspecting victims.

He reckoned that many of their victims have suffered high blood pressure while some others have died after they were duped of their hard earned money.

One of the victims, Mohammed Goje, said he knew Kagamu through his cousin who introduced him about three years ago.

Goje said: “I know him through my cousin, Ahmad Sabo, a business man in Gombe here. Fifteen of us are involved in the business.

“We sent money through Ahmad Sabo to buy soya beans and others, but along the line, he refused to give us any feedback on the transaction.

“Since January, Ahmad Sabo has transferred the sum of N32,490,000 to him for all of us including Ahmad Sabo himself and later another N15 million.

“The sum total of the money we have with him now is N40,709,564 million.

“Since then, he has been playing hide and seek over a business that should not last more than 24 hours after the produce is measured.

“What we discovered is that his statements are incoherent because he was unable to tell us where the money is and what he used it for.”

Another victim, Hamad Umar said he sold his land and added the money to the one he made from the harvest from his farm last year to invest in Kagamu’s produce business.

He said: “All the money I gave him was N650,000. I had to sell my land and put the money together with the one I made from my farm so I could invest.

“Initially, I wanted to start building my own house. But the money was not enough. So I thought that if I invested in his business, I would be able to raise enough money to build the house for my family. But now it seems that I have lost everything.”

Umar said he had been struggling to survive by selling video CDs and tapes in the market and also go to farm during the farming season.

Commandant Goni warned that people should be wary of the kind of business they invest in and the kind of people they do business with.

He said: “The sad aspect of the whole thing is that there was no written record of business transaction between him and all these people.

“The only evidence we have is the bank statements that confirmed that truly they sent money to him. But there was no contract agreement he signed with any one of them.

“Yes, it is good to do business on trust. It is one of those things required in doing business. But putting it down in black and white makes such business safe for both parties.” (The Nation)