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How a syndicate turns job seekers to victims in Calabar, Cross River
From Aniekan Aniekan, Calabar
Ogar Oko, from Benue State borrowed from relatives, and raised N1million for what he believed was a UK job. Instead, he found himself locked in a five-bedroom house in Calabar, the capital of Cross River State, and forced to recruit others into a pyramid scheme.
Oko is one of 42 victims, including eight foreigners, rescued by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) recently from what officials called an “indoctrination and holding camp” run by a transnational fraud syndicate.
Lured with promises of jobs in the UK, South Africa, Malaysia and Ivory Coast, the victims paid millions of Naira for “visa processing” only to be told on arrival: there is no travel. The new job is to scam more people.
Narrating his experience, Oko said: “A friend of mine offered me a job abroad, that is in UK. From there, they sent me an interview appointment.
“I attended the interview virtually in my house, that is online. About a week later, I was sent a congratulatory message that I had passed the interview. That was around June this year.
“From there, I started preparing. I wasn’t even having much money, but I had to request for money from my parents, my auntie and my brother. My relatives were able to raise the money for me to travel to the UK.
“The money that they raised for me in total was one million Naira, to use it to process my documents in Calabar. From there, I came down to Calabar.
“I did not pay the money until I reached here (Calabar), because my family wanted to be sure so they didn’t want to give me the money at first. I agreed. I said, if I come here and see that the process is real, then the money can be sent.
“When I came, I did not see any sign that there was a place to pay the money first before they took us to the main place where other people were gathered.
“After paying the money, they made me understand that I am no longer travelling to the UK, but I will be in Calabar doing the network marketing.
“The reason I did not go back to my people is because, if I say, let me go back now, the money that they gave me to pay the process, I don’t have it to give to them.”
He deeply regretted his actions, particularly the money he collected from his relatives for the doomed trip to work abroad and advised his fellow youths to be careful how they accept offers because 419 is very real.
“I never in my wildest imagination believed that I would find myself in this kind of situation,” he lamented.
Another victim, identified simply as Hamlet, a-27-year-old content creator from Bamenda, Cameroon, said a friend of his named Fok introduced him to the business and brought him to Calabar.
Narrating his experience with the phantom job scheme, which he called a business, he disclosed that a friend of his in Cameroon introduced him to the business.
He said: “When I got to the office, they said I need to involve two people in the business. And I was not also having money to join the business.
“They said I should be attending their trainings while looking for money. So, I commenced the training with them while looking for money.
“They told me it’s network marketing. That I need to sell two products. I needed to introduce the business to two people.”
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Disclosing that the name of his friend who introduced him to the “business” is Fok and he lives in Calabar, Hamlet added: “When you do research, the business is real. But the way they tell people is different from what you come and see. The problem is that they lie to people, that is where the problem is coming from.
“What I am basically saying is that what they do is different from what the business is and I am very happy that I have been rescued.
“I also wish to advise those out there to be careful because outside is really bad. At the end of some of these offers, you will see that the opportunity is something else. That’s all I can say.”
However, the prime cell leader of the organisation, Timothy Bayi, from Niger State said the business was introduced through his friend, Samman Awale.
He explained that the business is a network marketing, which he was convinced and accepted to do for the last two years.
He insisted that his company is into network marketing and market products online. He, however, failed to explain how his company came to keep over 40 persons trapped within the premises.
“When you come, we don’t know some of them, it’s network marketing. For example, I invite you, I advertise a product to you, the company will give you two chances, you advertise. So, the people that you advertise, I don’t know them,” he said.
The Cross River State Commandant of the NSCDC, CC Okarazu Chima, who lead the agency to burst the syndicate, said they lured people with promise of non-existing jobs in South Africa, Malaysia and Ivory Coast, and held hostage in a secret five-bedroom facility in Calabar.
The victims are aged between 22 and 36, were rescued recently during a coordinated, intelligence-led raid on what the NSCDC described as an “indoctrination and holding camp” run by a transnational fraud syndicate.
The state commandant said the syndicate operated under the guise of a multi-level networking company and tricked desperate job seekers into paying millions of naira for “international document and visa processing.”
He said: “Once the money is paid, the foreign job narrative is instantly abandoned. The victims are then held, heavily indoctrinated, and forced into an illegal pyramid scheme.
“They are coerced to recruit at least two additional victims to have any hope of recovering their stolen funds.”
According to him, the victims were told they would be selling “biodics and jewelry,” but not a single person interviewed had seen any physical product.
“It is all a phantom enterprise built on visual representations on websites and mobile phones,” he added.
The commandant said operatives also arrested the prime cell leader of the syndicate, Timothy Bayi, a native of Shiroro LGA of Niger State, on the night of August 15.
Bayi allegedly linked the group to a major service compliance and logistics company with headquarter in Lagos, a claim the NSCDC said it was verifying.
In a disturbing twist, eight of the 42 persons in custody are foreign nationals found without valid travel documents. The breakdown indicated: 28 Nigerian males, six Nigerian females, five Cameroonians and three Beninoise.
“We are working closely with the Nigeria Immigration Service to properly profile the undocumented foreign nationals,” Eke stated.
He warned that the network is highly compartmentalized to shield top bosses, but vowed: “We will pull this network up by its roots, no matter how deep or highly placed their corporate sponsors may be.”
For Oko, Hamlet from Cameroon, and dozens of others, the dream of “japa” ended in debt, shame, and captivity. “I don’t have the money to give my people back,” Oko said, his voice breaking.
In a country where hope is exported daily, this Calabar camp is proof that for many, the only thing waiting abroad is another lie.
