“Bolar! Bolar!! Bolar!!!”
The familiar morning cry echoes across many communities in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) before sunrise. Accompanied by the rattling of wooden carts, it signals the arrival of informal waste collectors popularly known as ‘Baban Bola’ or ‘Mai Bola’.
For thousands of Abuja residents, they provide an essential service abandoned by government. For security agencies, however, they have become a growing security concern. Increasingly, residents accuse some of them of using waste collection as a cover for theft, violent attacks, surveillance for criminal gangs and the vandalism of public infrastructure.
An investigation by THE WHISTLER found that while many waste pickers are genuine recyclers struggling to survive, weak regulation has enabled criminal elements to infiltrate the sector, creating an expanding network of insecurity across parts of Abuja.
Filling a Government Vacuum
The Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB) is responsible for waste management across the FCT. But in many satellite communities, residents say the agency rarely provides regular refuse collection.
Unable to wait for government services, households increasingly depend on informal collectors who move from street to street collecting waste for a small fee. The arrangement appears convenient but has created an unintended security risk.
Residents told THE WHISTLER that the same individuals who enter compounds to evacuate refuse often gain intimate knowledge of homes, businesses, movement patterns and valuable property. Security officials believe some criminal groups now exploit this unrestricted access.
Authorities have repeatedly attempted to restrict the activities of scavengers.
In 2022, the FCT Police Command ordered divisional police officers to arrest scavengers following intelligence reports linking some operators to stealing, housebreaking, carjacking, arms smuggling and drug trafficking.
Police spokesperson Josephine Adeh said then Commissioner of Police Sunday Babaji directed officers to dismantle criminal networks operating under the guise of scavenging while warning residents against jungle justice.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) followed with another restriction in January 2025, banning scavengers from operating within the Abuja city centre and limiting their activities to designated dumpsites in Gosa, Karshi, Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kwali, Abaji and Kuje.
The administration cited repeated complaints of theft, vandalism of public infrastructure and robbery allegedly linked to some waste collectors.
Officials warned that anyone operating outside approved locations would be arrested and prosecuted. Despite these measures, residents across Kubwa, Byazhin, Iddo Sabon and neighbouring communities say the activities continue largely unchecked.
Security agencies insist their concerns are based on investigations rather than assumptions.
In 2024, the FCT Police Command paraded about 150 suspected scavengers arrested during operations across Abuja.
Police Commissioner Benneth Igweh said officers recovered generators, machetes, locally made weapons and other suspected stolen property from the suspects.
He disclosed that hundreds of additional suspects had already been remanded by courts, promising sustained operations against criminal elements hiding under waste collection activities.
Similarly, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) announced the arrest of 36 suspected scavengers in 2025.
The agency recovered daggers, knives, narcotic drugs, codeine syrup, Indian hemp and tools allegedly used to remove public infrastructure including manhole covers, electrical cables and streetlight components.
According to the NSCDC, investigations suggested that some suspects also acted as informants for armed robbers, kidnappers and other organised criminal groups by gathering intelligence on residents during waste collection.
A Shop Owner Left Scarred
For Mr. Obiora Chinwuko, owner of Cost-Cutter Supermarket in Kubwa, the official warnings reflect his personal experience.
Around 6 a.m. one morning, while opening his shop, three men arrived with a waste collection truck. Initially believing they wanted refuse, he continued arranging his store.
Instead, they demanded money. When he refused, they forced him into the shop and began loading goods onto their vehicle. As he shouted for help, one attacker slashed at his neck with a long knife.
He instinctively raised his hand, suffering deep cuts before another blow struck his forehead. Bleeding heavily, Chinwuko watched the attackers cart away large quantities of goods.
“It was the third time they attacked me,” he recalled.
According to him, many business owners around the area now sleep inside their shops because of repeated attacks.
Ayomide Ayo still bears permanent scars from an encounter that turned violent in May 2024. She operated a small herbal and drinks shop behind Central Primary School in Byazhin when three suspected Baban Bola operators appeared near her business.
Feeling uneasy, she questioned why they were loitering around. Moments later, one allegedly attacked her. When another resident intervened, the suspect reportedly pulled out a knife before fleeing.
The violence escalated when the attackers later returned with reinforcements. Ayomide sustained serious injuries to her hand while shops in the area were looted.
The confrontation later degenerated into wider clashes that claimed three lives and forced schools and businesses to close temporarily.
Nearly two years later, she says her injured hand has never fully recovered.
“I still cannot use it properly,” she said. “Even bathing has become difficult because I need my children to help me.”
Her experience reflects the lasting physical and emotional impact many victims continue to live with long after police operations end.
For a resident identified simply as Handart, what began as a normal workday ended with the loss of almost everything valuable in his room.
Before leaving home in Iddo Sabon, he locked his apartment and left his HP laptop charging. His Samsung laptop remained on a table, while other personal belongings were secured inside.
Hours later, his mother called with disturbing news. Their apartment had been broken into. The laptops were gone, along with a gas cylinder, power bank, pressing iron and other household items.
Neighbours immediately suspected members of the local Baban Bola network, who had long been linked to burglaries in the area.
Days later, Handart’s mother located the family’s gas cylinder at a scrap dealer’s shop. Accompanied by police officers, she confronted the dealer, who claimed someone had simply sold it to him without documentation.
Although the dealer was arrested, the family recovered only the gas cylinder. The laptops and other valuables were never found.
“This is not the first time this has happened,” Handart said. “Government should do something so residents can live in peace.”
Favour, who lives in Masaka near Abuja, narrated a similar experience. After returning from school one afternoon, he discovered that burglars had broken into his home and stolen his laptop. Residents directed him to an informal market where suspected stolen items are openly traded.
To his surprise, he found his laptop there. Recovering it required paying money to those offering it for sale.
The incident illustrates what security experts describe as one of the biggest drivers of theft, a ready market for stolen goods.
Without scrap dealers and informal buyers willing to purchase suspicious items, many stolen goods would have little value to criminals.
Communities Living in Fear
Interviews conducted across Kubwa, Byazhin and neighbouring communities revealed similar experiences.
A salon owner lost an expensive generator after burglars broke into her shop; A boutique operator said thieves emptied his business overnight, making away with clothing valued at about ₦700,000; An electrical shop worker now sleeps inside his employer’s store after repeated break-ins; Another trader reported losing curtains and household materials during a burglary; Residents also described cases where refuse collected by informal operators was simply dumped behind nearby buildings after payment had been collected; while Others said confronting suspected offenders often resulted in threats or violence.
These accounts cannot establish that every informal waste collector engages in crime.
However, they reveal a pattern of insecurity that has left many residents deeply suspicious of an industry that operates with virtually no regulation.
An Emerging Criminal Economy
Security agencies believe the problem extends beyond petty theft. Investigations suggest some criminal groups exploit waste collection to identify vulnerable targets.
Collectors move freely through residential areas, observing which compounds contain generators, vehicles, expensive electronics or weak security arrangements. Because they enter homes openly, they attract little suspicion.
The information gathered can later be used by burglary gangs. Authorities also believe stolen items move through informal markets where documentation is rarely required. This creates a criminal supply chain linking thieves, transporters, scrap dealers and buyers.
Officials say the theft of manhole covers, electrical cables, telecommunications equipment and other public infrastructure has become increasingly attractive because of strong demand in the scrap metal market.
Police Response
Following repeated attacks in communities such as Byazhin, the FCT Police Command intensified operations against suspected criminal networks operating under the cover of scavenging.
Police spokesperson Josephine Adeh said authorities had put measures in place to prevent further violence.
Successive police commissioners have maintained that criminal elements have infiltrated the informal waste sector and promised sustained enforcement.
Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, has also publicly warned about the security implications of unregulated scavenging.
Disu recalled that while serving as Commissioner of Police in the FCT, authorities restricted scavengers from operating freely within city centres because of intelligence linking some operators to theft and vandalism.
“Most of the stealing you see around are perpetrated by them,” he said, urging residents to report suspicious activities promptly.
He stressed that security requires cooperation between residents and law enforcement agencies.
“If you see something, say something,” the Inspector-General said, adding that protecting communities cannot be left to security agencies alone.
Despite these assurances, many residents interviewed for this investigation questioned why the same suspects often return to the streets shortly after arrest.
Several also alleged that buyers of stolen property frequently escape serious punishment, allowing the criminal market to continue operating.
Beyond Enforcement: Addressing the Root Causes
Experts argued that repeated arrests alone will not solve Abuja’s scavenging problem.
Engr. Koko Ademuyiwa, Director of Operations at the Crux Environmental Rights, Advocacy and Development Foundation (CERADF), said the issue should be viewed not only as a security challenge but also as an environmental and economic one.
According to him, the informal waste sector exists because of unemployment, weak waste management systems and the growing demand for recyclable materials.
“Purely punitive crackdowns rarely solve the problem because the sector is driven by poverty, unemployment and demand from scrap buyers,” he said.
Ademuyiwa warned that treating every Baban Bola operator as a criminal could drive legitimate recyclers underground while allowing organised criminal networks to remain active.
Instead, he advocated a comprehensive approach combining regulation, intelligence-led policing and environmental reforms.
One of his key recommendations is a compulsory registration and licensing system for waste collectors operating within the FCT.
Under such a system, legitimate operators would undergo background checks, carry visible identification cards and work only within approved hours and designated locations.
This, he said, would make it easier for residents and security agencies to distinguish genuine waste collectors from criminal impostors.
He also identified the scrap metal market as a major driver of infrastructure theft.
According to him, stolen manhole covers, electrical cables, telecom equipment and other public assets remain attractive targets because buyers are willing to purchase them with little or no documentation.
To address this, he urged authorities to introduce stricter regulation of scrap dealers, recycling centres and informal warehouses, with severe penalties for anyone found buying stolen public infrastructure.
Ademuyiwa further recommended the establishment of organised recycling hubs where recyclable materials can be sorted and traded under official supervision instead of allowing uncontrolled street operations.
He also called for stronger collaboration among residents’ associations, local councils and security agencies through structured reporting systems capable of identifying repeat offenders and emerging crime patterns.
Beyond law enforcement, he argued that sustainable employment programmes, vocational training and sanitation jobs could provide alternatives for unemployed youths who currently depend on informal scavenging for survival.
Improving Abuja’s waste collection system, he added, would reduce residents’ dependence on unregulated operators while creating opportunities to integrate genuine waste pickers into a formal recycling economy.
He also suggested redesigning public infrastructure such as manhole covers and utility installations with theft-resistant materials or tracking technology to discourage vandalism.
“The underlying issue is not simply scavenging,” Ademuyiwa said. “It is the intersection of urban poverty, weak waste governance, informal economies and infrastructure theft.”
The findings of this investigation point to a complex reality. Thousands of informal waste collectors perform legitimate work every day, providing an essential service in communities where formal refuse collection remains inadequate.
At the same time, evidence from law enforcement agencies and numerous residents indicates that criminal groups have exploited the industry’s lack of regulation to operate under the cover of waste collection.
Repeated government bans, police raids and mass arrests have not eliminated the problem.
Instead, many affected communities continue to report burglary, violent attacks, infrastructure vandalism and the operation of markets where suspected stolen goods are traded openly.
Residents say the absence of effective waste management leaves them with an impossible choice: tolerate overflowing refuse or rely on unregulated collectors whose identities and backgrounds remain unknown.
The Way Forward
Security experts agree that the solution lies neither in blanket crackdowns nor in ignoring the problem.
A functioning waste management system, proper registration of collectors, tighter regulation of scrap markets, stronger prosecution of offenders and improved community policing could significantly reduce opportunities for criminal infiltration.
Without those reforms, the informal waste economy is likely to remain vulnerable to exploitation by organised criminal groups.
For victims such as Ayomide Ayo, whose injured hand has never fully healed, supermarket owner Obiora Chinwuko, who still carries scars from a machete attack, and residents like Handart and Favour, who lost valuable possessions to burglars, the issue goes beyond environmental sanitation.
It is about personal safety.
Across many Abuja communities, the early morning cry of “Bolar! Bolar!! Bolar!!!” still signals the arrival of refuse collectors. For some residents, it represents a convenient service.
For others, it has become a reminder of insecurity, unanswered questions and a system that has yet to distinguish those earning an honest living from those using the trade as a cover for crime.
Until that distinction is made through effective regulation, improved waste management and targeted law enforcement, the shadow hanging over Abuja’s informal waste sector is unlikely to disappear.
This story was produced in partnership with Civic Media Lab under its Grassroots News Project.
(The Whistler)
