Victor Archibong @solovick

My coursemate introduced me to a scheme that requires you to invest in it and then receive profits daily. You're to invest 120k and receive 4k daily, you're not doing any other thing than this, clearly you see it's not a legit thing. I declined and told him that the site can't prove to people how they multiply the investments to be able to pay their users. The guy said he has seen people who has withdrawn already, and it's enough prove for him to join in

The guy went ahead and used the money that was meant for house rent, to invest in the scheme and the money was given to him by his father. In my mind, I only hoped that he will successfully withdraw his money, before the owners of the scheme closes and disappears into thin air with people's money, because surely their plan is to scam people at the end of it, and it has already been mapped out from the beginning.

Unfortunately, it wasn't up to a week, my hope for the guy was shattered and the guy's heart was broken in pieces, the scheme crashed and all the money was gone in a twinkle of an eye. You need to see the way the guy's face was, he cried till his face turned pale, something I warned him about and he refused to listen. I have been a victim of this kind of scheme before, and so I spotted this one with ease. The guy and his referrals all went into depression.

Currently, the guy is still trying to figure out how to raise money for his rent that is expiring in two months from now, and he's not working, just a student. The guy does not rest at any point in time, always thinking of how to get his house rent ready, I don't know if he will be brave enough to tell his father what happened. He is on his own certainly, there's little or no way that he can raise the money by himself.

Some time ago, I saw an advert from Opay on Facebook, looking for workers in various aspect, and a minimum payment of 100k monthly. The opportunity was mostly for students, so I took it because of the pay and applied, I didn't even know the position I was applying for, I just wanted a side job alongside my studentship, to help relieve some financial burden. I filled the form online and submitted it, really hoping that I will be called upon.

Few days ago, I received a phone call from an Opay agent, telling me that my application has been accepted and the work position given to me is to work as an ambassador. I didn't know what the full detail was about, so I decided to go and find out if it's something that won't stress me too much or affect my academic activities. I went and met with the agent, who is also a student, but he's married, and he surely looks very responsible as a family man he is.

The agent told me that my work is to buy Opay ATM Cards from them, and register/sell it for people at a higher price. Which means I will have to walk around, and meet people and get to talk to them, and try to convince them to get the Opay Card. Right there, I thought to myself that even I, don't have the card, because I do transfers all through, and so it might be tough to convince somebody. He asked me if I could do it, I told him I wouldn't know unless I tried.

I bought some cards from him and decided to give it a try, honestly I doubted the possibility of carrying out that task effectively, because I don't know how to persuade somebody. I was willing to try, so I started off in earnest, with the students in school. I approached people that said that they don't have money, people that said they don't want to use Opay, people that said they have Opay Card already and people that behaved very rudely.

At the end of the day, I wasn't able to register anybody, I automatically knew that this line of work wasn't for me, I don't have what it takes to go round get all this different kind of reactions. I went home straight and registered the cards for my neighbors and friends for free, so it won't waste. I don't see myself fitting in, especially as a student who is rarely free, at least it was worth trying, maybe something different next time.

A close neighbor of mine, we normally call him Prince, who drives okada using somebody's bike, and then pays the person on a weekly basis, trended in my street because of what he did. Just like every other day, he went out with this bike to make money, when he met a young man and got into a discussion. The guy told Prince that he wants to learn how to ride a bike, and he'll pay anybody that will teach him.

The guy offered him 2k only to learn the bike, and Prince agreed. They went to the training session right away, in a road that is less busy and free. The guy will ride, and Prince will be at the back guiding him. After some time, the guy told Prince that he wants to try on his own, without anybody seated at the back, which he agreed. Prince kept watching as the guy rode past their usual training distance, till he was out of sight with the bike.

At first, he couldn't believe his eyes, the guy was gone with the bike, a thief with a well designed strategy. Prince decided to lie to the owner of the bike, that the bike was stolen in the night while he was sleeping. He even accused one of our neighbors of stealing the bike, and police was involved in the case. Meanwhile he confided in few people, the truth about what really happened, and you know that talks like that can't lay low for long.

Everybody got to know what really happened, and the police arrested him for faking and lying about the whole thing. Prince has a girlfriend that is pregnant, and expecting a baby soon, that kind of human being will look for money through any possible means. Teaching someone how to drive for just 2k shows desperation, and lying shows he's not willing and not capable of handling the consequences. And the thief's strategy, I don't think anyone would have seen it coming. The thief and the bike has not been found till date.

I came across some freshers (newly admitted year one students) in school today, and what I heard them go through was just too much. Right from the day I entered the university, I have always done all the online printouts and processes by myself, so I have the full knowledge of how to do everything, including payment of school fees. The only money the cyber cafe has gotten from me is printing money.

Today I met some freshers lamenting about the bulky fee they are to pay, to get started with the university. The owners of those cyber cafes should be driving in SUVs, if actually they are extorting that much from students. They told the freshers to do online clearance of 7k, but there is nothing like online clearance in our university, it's just a format to get free 7,000 naira from freshers. Also acceptance fee of 4,500 naira, but also there is no acceptance fee in the university.

Also, Jamb admission letter of 4,500 naira, but the money to be paid on the portal to jamb is not mor thank 2,000 naira and some minor charges, so why charge that much. Also, Jamb original result of 4,500 naira, but on the portal, it's not more than 2,000 naira. Through means like this and other numerous means, they have extorted more than enough from the innocent and fearful freshers. I think I was the only exception, because I did everything by myself, so I never needed their services.

I told the freshers that there is nothing like acceptance fee and online clearance in the university, and that they only needed to print the jamb admission letter and original result, and then generate remita to pay school fees next. I offered to help them do all those things right there without charging them, they didn't trust me, so they refused. The native freshers believed so much in the cyber cafe guys, and preferred the extortion way.

I left them and went my way, immediately I got home, my neighbors gisted me about how three freshers were scammed by a cyber cafe. The cyber cafe collected almost 200,000 naira from the three of them to pay their school fees, but they didn't pay the school fees, and the innocent freshers didn't know. On finding out some days later that the fees wasn't paid, they went back to the cyber cafe, but couldn't find anyone. Just because the people don't have any knowledge of what is to be done, they have capitalized on it and extorted excess from them. Knowledge is power, it's not a lie. In life, even if it doesn't concern you, or it's not your field, just try and know little about it, it will help you.

Just the other day, I was running late for class, I was very late, despite that I tried my best, I still couldn't meet up on time. So I had no choice than to run from my house, down to where I was going to enter a shuttle inside the school. It was on a hot afternoon, I was started sweating before I could finish dressing because of how much I was in a hurry. The run had to be very fast, else, I will be more late than expected.

I was surprised to run into a dog that was sleeping on the road, while I was still navigating my way out of my street. The dog woke immediately and began to run away, thinking it was under an attack. It was very funny, I laughed, the dog was in a deep sleep, the eyes were red, and I'm sure it was running for it's life, with sleep in it's eyes. But then, the run didn't stop, I still had to get to class on time, I kept moving.

The dog ran ahead of me, and in the next few meters, there was an uncompleted building, with two guys sitting in front, with substance in their hand, that I think it was weed. Immediately they saw me running towards them, they left what they were doing and ran away with full speed. Believe me I was running fast, in their mind, it must be police officers that are after me, and they ran even without seeing anything after me.

I wanted to call out to them and tell them that no one is pursuing me, but then they looked rough and could have beaten the hell out of me for scaring them, so I continued my run quietly, while they ran and branched unknown destinations. I could not hold my laugh, it was very funny. It's only a guilty man that runs when nothing is pursuing him, so they deserved the 'run for your life's incident.

Got to class with my clothes soaked in sweats, and the funny incident didn't leave my head even for a second. 'Dogs and humans run in a blind battle to save their lives', that would have made a top headline if there were drones covering the event. Me that was innocently running to class, guilty beings were busy running too. Chai!