N70m scam: Group calls for investigation of travel agency

By CHRIS EMETOH | 

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) have been petitioned to investigate the fraudulent activities of a travel agency alleged to have defrauded unsuspecting Nigerians to the tune of over N70m.

The Foundation for the Defence of Consumer Rights (FODCOR), a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) which lead a protest march to both agencies in Abuja, said the dubious company claims to provide tourism services to Nigerians by providing holiday vacation accommodation to them in resorts in designated countries.

According to Paul Edeh, who spoke for the group, the agency sends marketers to filing stations, airports, hotels, supermarkets and other public places where they lure unsuspecting Nigerians to watch documented videos before making them apply for the overseas vacation.

Edeh said prior to the presentations, their marketers would inform the applicants that their package includes assisting them in processing visas to the designated countries they plan to go for vacation.

Narrating his ordeal, one of the victims, Louis Okpe, a staff of the National Youth Service Corps(NYSC) said, “I was invited on phone by one of their worker named Gloria, who called me and said somebody introduced me in their club and I should come and pick my ticket and go to South Africa.

“When I got there they said I should wait for presentation, after which they said we should pay some amount of money to qualify us as members of VIP Express Tourism Limited, which I paid. In fact, they had to force me to pay that night. Someone followed me to my house and I issued a cheque of N140, 250 that night and also issued six post dated cheques each amounting to N54, 338 that night.

“Subsequently, they withdrew twice and that was when my eyes opened. Because each time they withdrew, I asked for my receipt they never gave me any. Their staff called Consultant Gabriel Abu was the one who collected the cheques from me. The visa they promised me to South Africa they never gave.”

Another victim, Rev Kingsley Nwachukwu, said he played into the hands of the fraudsters in 2013 but by the time he realized what they were into it was too late for him.

“The truth of the matter was that there is a deceptive strategy employed by VIP to defraud Nigerians. In 2013, I was invited to Protea Hotel to attend a presentation and the  consultant that spoke me into making the payment of N382, 500.

“When we wanted to make the second payment in August he said further payments cannot be made on the grounds that their server and computers crashed, so we started calling all through 2013 no response from them again,” he said.