Nigeria is a funny country the first thing people have to understand about scams that happen in the country or crime in general is at some point there's an element of black magic involved... It seems funny or improbable but you see maybe cause life's hard in the country or the citizens are normally way too alert, getting someone even a kid to release his money by simply intriguing him with your scam is nigh impossible... So yeah this story has black magic involved, well just a tiny element of it but February 14, 2012 would always be a day I'll remember...
The morning of February 14
This was my first Valentine's Day as an undergrad in the university had no date then so was left to plan for what was supposed to be a couples day alone... The previous night had texted a friend of mine a guy, about meeting up at the cinema to watch a movie been a long while now can't remember which movie... Anyway was supposed to meet up with mekele at around 2 or so in the afternoon... For some strange reason despite being the one to bring up the idea 2hrs or so to the meet up time I called mekele and told him I didn't feel like we should go see the movie but my friend has always been a stubborn person, adamantly refused and got upset saying threatening to go alone... Well told him that was fine by me but not before quipping in a dry joke at the time about how he needed to be careful else his phone gets stolen...
The first scam - One chance
What at that time seemed a fairly innocuous joke turned out to be an ominous warning in hindsight...
At around 3pm I was woken up by my phone ringing... Picking up the phone it turned out to be mekele on the other end of the call before I had the chance to ask why he called with a strange number, was hit with the words: guy I dey rumuola by presidential gate, come pick me up hurry dem don thief my phone and wallet... Didn't believe it at first but I could tell from his tone he wasn't joking, 15mins later I had met up with mekele at the prescribed location... In tears he proceeded to tell me what happened, if your Nigerian then you must have pretty much heard or come across the popular one chance scam by now... Now according to him this is exactly what happened: he had boarded a cab from Choba to mile 3 then silverbird cinema was the go to location... Apparently he was the last passenger to enter so took a seat at the back making a total of 5 passengers and the driver, 6 proton total... Halfway through the journey somewhere around rumuigbo one of the passengers in the front seat a young girl according to him looked 20 or thereabouts had a call picked up her phone and then proceeded to put the call on speaker, an unusual thing when in a cab as most would prefer their calls to remain private... Should have been a red flag but after hearing the details of the call it was clear to him she simply wanted to boast... Anyway the call went thus on the other end of the phone was another girl who happily started mouthing off about how her lover who she called chief just surprised her with a getaway trip to Dubai and in fact had asked about her but as she wasn't around promised to give her $10,000... Ecstatic the girl asked where to come pick up the money her friend said presidential hotel... As that was along the way to mile 3 the girl said okay she'll come pick it up now... On dropping the call the girl started pleading with the driver to just divert to the hotel as it was on the way to their location... The driver refused saying she wasn't the only passenger so couldn't do that... Well the girl started pleading with the other passengers including my friend, at first they all refused saying they were in a hurry the woman seated at the far end of the back seat an elderly woman was the most vocal cursing the young lady and her friend mouthing off about heaven, hell and how selling their bodies for money was a sin... It seemed the woman's curses suddenly made everybody in the car side with her first was the young girl seated by the girl in question in the front seat who first suggested the driver stop at the hotel, as the elderly woman proceeded to curse that girl too... The young man around 30 or so seated in the middle of my friend an the woman now suggested the girl should give him some of the money if she wanted his cooperation... Stupid idea at first but the girl quickly agreed promising to give each person $100 dollars sounds small right buy here in Nigeria that was around 20,000naira then... Which is a lot of money to gain for simply doing nothing... My friend mekele who had all this while remained quiet was asked his thoughts and he simply said okay... The elderly woman apparently refused to partake in the devilish money, on getting to the junction leading to the hotel the driver proceeded to divert barely had they entered the junction the cab's engine suddenly spluttered to a halt... Now it was barely 500 yards in sight of the hotel so the driver suggested to come down and help push the cab maybe that would help start it... The elderly woman refused saying this was a sign from God that the money was cursed now as mekele and the young man by his side were the only men including the driver in the cab it was common logic that they'll be the ones to push the cab... Now as at 2012 tight fitting jeans were in fad and the problem with them was cause they were super tight phones and wallets were uncomfortable to put in the pockets so most people always carries a bag for boys a small schoolbag was the accessory... The driver was the first to alight now mekele oblivious to the whole plot did same leaving his bag containing his wallet and phone in the cab... No sooner had he stepped out the driver jumped back in the car and sped off leaving a dumbfounded mekele chasing after him... Well he wasn't superman and it wasn't long before the car was out of sight...
The second scam - money doublers
Like I said my friend is quite stubborn no sooner had he finished explaining his ordeal to me he suggested we entered the bank I borrow him some money about 50k or so while he stumped up the other 50k to go buy a new phone... Now the use of POS machines to pay for transactions wasn't possible then so almost all transactions were cash based... I obviously suggested we went home to leave the new phone for another day... But he refused so an hour and half later we are on our way to garrison to buy a phone mekele then was enamoured with Nokia devices and Nokia had just introduced a new device into the market they promised had the best camera ever seen in a phone can't remember the device model anymore... So that device was what was on his mind on getting to garrison junction we alighted and proceeded to walk to phone village to get his phone when we were approached by 2 boys... The first question we were asked was if we wanted to buy a phone, this is very common as over here in Nigeria shop owners tend to send helpers to go seek for customers instead of waiting for them... I replied saying no, they persisted saying they had something to show us, I accelerated but my friend did not after walking about 50m or so I turned and saw my friend talking with the 2 boys, till today mekele says he doesn't know what they said to him and can't remember a single word they said that made him stop to listen, anyway I turned and walked back to meet them just in time to see them bring out a small black box from their bag... Upon seeing the box as if struck by magic I and mekele couldn't take our eyes of the box the boys also brought out a small liquid, opening the box they poured a tiny portion of the liquid inside brought out a 1000naira note closed the box said some incantations opened the box and inside was 10,000naira somehow the money hadn't just doubled it had multiplied... Looking on in disbelief the boys explained to us the mechanism of the box and liquid and suggested we give them a 1000naira too, we immediately did giving them a 1000naira each they did the same thing poured the liquid in the box put the money in the box and said the same incantation opening the box they handed us 10,000naira each... At this point it didn't matter what anybody told us we were hooked the boys told asked us if we had anymore money on us mekele quickly answered yes, I thought of hurrying to the bank to withdraw some money but as no bank was in sight at that point sadly couldn't and then ATM machines weren't easily accessible... The boys told us the box and machine cost 10,000 each but that to proof they were genuine we should pay them with the money they just multiplied for us after all it was in our possession now... Hearing that we quickly gave them the money, they gave us the box and liquid and told us to bring what we had now I had no money on me apart from that 1000naira I had already used before... Mekele quickly brought out the 100,000naira with him and gave them they poured the liquid in the box put the money inside and told mekele the exact words to say and to open the box in 30mins as it took more time to multiply a larger sum... Excitedly we waved them off and mekele quickly said the incantation... Those 30mins felt like a week we were about to become millionaires... Just to be sure we left the box closed for a further 5mins we didn't want the process to be disrupted cause we opened it too early... We eagerly opened the box but instead of a million Naira only paper, we closed the box opened it again nothing still paper it was at that point reality seemed to slap us awake we had just lost a 100,000naira... Impossible we started running off in the direction we saw the boys heading off to... Stopping each time we saw someone asking if they saw the boys... Each and everytime met with laughter at our situation and the same words go home I didn't see anybody, the boys you are looking for are probably long gone... We spent the next 2hrs walking around garrison searching for the 2 boys we knew had absconded... Finally we decided to walk home...
The third scam - please help me
Walking from garrison to rumuokoro where I live is probably what saved my life that day, if I hadn't who knows what may have happened...
After about 4 or more hours of walking I had finally reached rumuokoro junction at that point I was too pissed with myself and too tired too even think, my feet were already full of blisters and all I had on my mind was going home to cry... That's when I was approached by a stranger carrying a huge back this was around 9PM now there are no street lights so only the lights from cabs and still open shops illuminated the junction so I couldn't see his face clearly but he was wearing a red cap... At first he spoke French to me as I was just out of high school I could still understand a little bit of French, told him in quite rudely that he was in Nigeria that we speak English here and he was going to waste my time I had somewhere else to go... He seemed surprised maybe cause I understood and spoke back to him in French... Anyway he immediately started speaking pidgin English (our local dialect sort of) but you could tell it wasn't his strong point anyway he went on and on about how he just arrived at Port Harcourt now from Abidjan and it was his first time here that he sold laptops and phones opened his bags and showed me the laptops and phones inside... Quickly promised to give me a laptop and phone if I took him to a hospital would never forget the name he called Hazuec General hospital that his customer who ordered the shipment was waiting for him there but he was lost... Now I've lived in this area for a while and know there's no hospital around by that name told him same but he disagreed showing me a text from the client with directions... At that point the pain from my legs seemed to send a message to my brain "dismiss this guy sharply before I crumble here" it was at that point I started raising my voice shouting at him saying I just got myself a phone I'm happy with and my dad had gotten me a laptop didn't need his... He placed his hand on my shoulder as if trying to calm me down as soon as he did I froze I couldn't speak couldn't move as if my body was being controlled... This is were till today I thank God for having been scammed hours earlier, the one thing that I still felt was the sharp pain in my legs, as I had been talking with the man for about 30mins and hadn't moved my legs suddenly gave way and I fell it wasn't until I fell I realized what just happened... As I opened my eyes looked at the man I quickly got up turned and started running... I guess my shouting earlier and subsequent fall is what saved me, that little fiasco didn't go unnoticed and it wasn't long before a crowd had gathered and a cab driver kindly offered to drive me home... On getting home I collapsed in my mum's arms and awoke hours later...
Days later the cab driver who eventually became a family friend sort of, was explaining the whole thing to my mum he said I had been lucky to escape that the moment the man touched me I had been charmed and would have followed him anywhere and that my running from the man saved me that most of those people who had gathered around the man were his cohorts and that they were kidnappers, if I had gone with them who knows what may have happened... Well thank God I never got to find out what may have been but that day taught me a real lesson one I've never forgotten and would probably never forget....