Fifty Foreigners Rescued From Scammers In Lagos Building

The police in Lagos State have rescued fifty immigrants, some of them children, from surrounding African countries.

A group of job fraudsters had fifty foreigners who were been held captive in a duplex on Omola Road in the Edemola neighbourhood of Epe, Lagos.

After being saved, the foreigners—who are citizens of Gabon and Cameroon—were brought to the Okeoyibo Police Division.

The police said that their research showed they were tricked into believing there were jobs in Nigeria by the leaders of a Cameroonian employment scam gang.

The victims gave the con artists an undisclosed sum in the hopes of getting employment in Nigeria.

According to reports, some of the victims admitted to police officers that they had sold their homes and other belongings back home in order to pay for their trip to Nigeria and the promised work there.

They were allegedly being held in the duplex upon arrival and given strict instructions not to leave until they received the promised jobs.

Some of them had been in the building for six months, it was found.

Thirty-four people were rescued, according to SP Benjamin Hudenyin, the public relations officer for the Lagos State Police. The primary suspect, he said, has escaped to Cameroon.

Hundeyin said: “They are not kidnapped victims, they were deceived by some Cameroonians that there were jobs in Nigeria, only to be stranded because they have expended all their money. All of them have been taken to the police station.

“The ring leader is on the run. He gave all of them the same arrival date and when they arrived, he collected their money from them, asked them to stay in that room and left with a promise to be back, only to abandon them and go back to Cameroon.”

A Gentle Reminder: Every obstacle is a stepping stone, every morning; a chance to go again, and those little steps take you closer to your dream.

Nnamdi Okoli