A member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), identified as Busayo Endurance, has alleged that officers of the Nigeria Police Force demanded N500,000 before they would assist in tracking down an online scammer who defrauded him of N610,000.
Busayo shared his story with SaharaReporters, recounting that he found a laptop seller named Gadget Sabo Aliu Enterprise-Liberty Enterprise on Jiji, a popular online marketplace, and was directed to a shop in Abuja. After negotiating with the seller, they settled on a price of N610,000. Busayo transferred the amount to the seller’s MoniePoint account, only to discover that the seller was not the actual shop owner and had vanished with his money.
He explained, “When I tried to collect the laptop, the shop owner refused, saying he hadn’t received any payment from the seller. I approached MoniePoint’s management, and they told me to obtain a court order to reverse the money.”
At that point, Busayo sought help from the police, but they allegedly demanded payment for their assistance. “The police asked for N100,000 to help secure a court order and another N400,000 to track the scammer,” he said.
While Busayo did manage to obtain a court order and submitted it to MoniePoint, he was informed that the money had already been moved out of the scammer’s account. He added, “A lawyer eventually helped me get the court order, and police in Abuja claimed the scammer was in Benin. They wanted N400,000 for tracking, but when I contacted police in Benin, they said he was actually in Lagos.”
Busayo further shared that police requested an additional N500,000 to go after the scammer, a sum he could not afford. “I’m at a standstill because the police are demanding too much to simply do their job,” he said.
A court document provided by Busayo stated that his request for reversal of the N610,000 transfer had been granted. It reads: “This court hereby orders that the sum of N610,000, fraudulently transferred from the applicant’s account, be retrieved and returned. If the account does not have sufficient funds, all linked accounts should be restricted until the sum is repaid.”
In the end, Busayo resorted to getting assistance from a friend who helped track down the scammer.
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