On November 25, Ibrahim Musa, a Lagos-based petty trader was in his shop, when a minor approached him with a debit card for a PoS withdrawal transaction. The young boy wanted to withdraw N5,000 from his mother’s First Bank account.
Musa told FIJ that he promptly did the transaction and handed the cash to the boy after deducting his N100 withdrawal fee. He discharged the boy as he didn’t have a receipt to give him and thought all was well.
However, that single transaction would soon bounce on him, making him a victim of physical assault at the hands of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). This also led to a N360,000 loss for a deal he knew nothing about.
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What Musa didn’t pay attention to, the genesis of his problem, was that as the boy withdrew the cash, someone came into his stall pretending to be a customer. As soon as the boy turned on his heels, the fake customer followed him, the fraud running into several thousands of naira.
“One boy came to do PoS at my place, and after he had withdrawn the money, N5,000, I noticed that someone was sitting at my place. I didn’t know the person, he only sat down and I thought he came to buy something,” Musa told FIJ on Friday.
“I handed the cash to the boy and he left. But what I didn’t know was that the man stood up and followed him. I later found out that this man took the debit card from the boy after making him give up the security pin.
“The man then went to other PoS vendors in the neighbourhood and withdrew money from the account in tranches of N150,000, N200,000 up to N475,000.
A copy of the N5,000 transaction receipt Musa gave to the boy.
“While all this was happening, I didn’t know about it. I was only in my shop.”
Musa explained that an hour after the transaction, the boy returned to his store with an adult who asked if he was the one who carried out the boy’s transaction, unknown to him that it was different from the N5,000 transaction. He admitted he was the one who carried out the transaction.
He stated that when they asked if he withdrew the entire N475,000 from him, he was quick to tell them he knew nothing about it. But they didn’t believe him. Musa was accused of initiating more than the required amount.
“I repeated to them that I had only given the boy N5,000, that the transaction was N5,100 to be precise and that did they not get the notification debit alert on their phone,” Musa told FIJ.
“I told them I gave them the cash and that the man who followed him was on my chair looking at us. Later, I saw him hide the boy in a corner collect the debit card from him and use it at another place.
“I didn’t know the man neither had I seen him before. He only came to sit at my place and I didn’t really pay attention to that.”
Despite all his explanations, Musa said they didn’t believe him and insisted he was lying. He said they accused him of conniving with the stranger to empty the account because they both spoke the Hausa language.
An hour after this exchange, he said policemen from Second Rainbow, Festac, Lagos, arrived and arrested him. This was despite his requests to see the debit alerts received from the fraudulent withdrawal and perhaps he could trace where it came from.
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“When we arrived at the police station, I tried explaining my side of the story to the police but they didn’t even allow me to finish before they started to slap me,” Musa said.
“When I asked the police officer why he slapped me as I was only just explaining, he slapped me harder and I had to apologise. They then said the man who collected the debit card from the boy spoke Hausa and I could know him.
“But I told the officer that even he himself speaks Hausa and just about everyone else speaks the language. But he said I was lying and slapped me again and put me in a cell.
“I showed them the N5,000 receipt the boy collected. At the time of the withdrawal, I didn’t give it to the boy because there was no paper in my PoS. I showed this to the police, and they took it from me, but they said I was lying.
“They refused to show me the debit alerts that were received on the account so I could see them, and that it was none of my business. Now, I have been made to pay N360,000 out of the money. This is something I knew nothing about.”
FIJ called CSP Balogun Gboyega, the Divisional Police Officer of Festac Division, for a reaction, but he didn’t answer the call. He was also yet to respond to a text message FIJ sent at press time.
The post Lagos Police Assault Petty Trader, Force Him to Pay N360,000 for Fraud He Knew Nothing About appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.