From Scammers den to Police den: True life story

in Hive Learnerslast year (edited)

Hello wonderful hivers, so glad to have you stop by my blog,

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Police are meant to be our friend, so I thought but the reverse is the case, I don't know about other country but in my country Nigeria, they are mostly friends with money, as long as wealth and power is involved they can turn white to black and vice versa.

This incidence happened about 9 years back, The ASUU(Academic Staff Union of University) had just embarked on their strike, even though my school then was closed down due to a riot that erupted and got an engineering student killed, during the closure, I stayed back around the school hoping we would resume soon, as I didn't want to go through the stress of travelling back home from Akwa Ibom to Lagos especially when it involved road transport, after staying for two months, I got tired, all my friends had gone home, gladly, my mum came to visit her hometown, that means we would be travelling back home together, we decided to visit my younger sister who was residing in portharcourt, another state, then, before heading to Lagos.

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That was the journey that led me to know how a police cell looked like, on arriving at the park, my sister sent the address of my aunt she was staying with, since we didn't know our way around portharcourt, we took a bus to OPM, instead of OPM free restaurant, not knowing that they were two different location, the sms she sent, had stated OPM free restaurant, getting to the wrong bus stop, we decided to chatter a taxi to our destination, the worst decision,

After telling the driver where we were headed and also told him we were new in portharcourt so we don't know our way around (wrong thing to do) , I guess that was what he was after, the JJC ( a slang used for people who are new to an environment) he assured us he knew there, he became friendly automatically and made us feel relaxed, as he was about to move, a well dressed man stoped the car and was also asking for directions from him, he pleaded with us to let him join us and stay at the front passenger sit, since he was also heading towards our direction and was new to (plan work) with our Godly mind, we accepted not knowing we've just entered into the den of scammers, on transit, they started discussing, the new passenger started recounting his experience of how he just arrived from another country, and was robbed of most of the valuables he shipped in, the ones he could save, he kept it somewhere said he had laptops, phones, and some other gadgets, and he couldn't locate the person he came to visit in Nigeria so he wants to go back to the country he came from, and needed to dispose of the goods but he didn't trust any man with it, said where he came from they trusted only women, since they had pure heart than men, and he was cashless at the moment, while this discussion was on going, we never knew the driver was just driving us in circles, which alerted some vigilant citizen to inform the police, my mum told him she wasn't interested in those goods and she didn't have the money to purchase them, he kept on insisting that God just touched his heart to bless her, all she needed to do was give him sone money to go back to his country, then the driver tried to encourage my mum, that she was lucky, this was a lifetime opportunity, since the man said the goods were worth millions, while all this was on going my mum kept telling me in our dialect that she felt uncomfortable and still insisting telling them no money.

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Suddenly, just like we do see in movies, some police started following us, the driver noticed and uped his speed, me and my mum started screaming for him to stop, then we knew something was off, the other foreigner man jumped off the car nearby a bush and ran off, at that point, the driver brought out his phone, quickly pulling out his sim card and throwing it out, before he could continue driving the police vans stoped at our front , back also at the side, with their Ak-37, I was shocked and almost relieved checking if all our body parts was still intact, without any enquiry they brought us all out, and started treating us like criminals, I started to cry, the driver kept on telling the police men to let me and my mum go that we were fishes they wanted to catch, to say I was shocked is an understatement, they drove us to the police station, collected all our belongings including phones.

On getting to the police station, we discovered that taxi has been on the police list among fraudsters, they've defrauded a lot of people already, and they used charm too, according to the tales we heard they could make you give them to your last Kobo, even borrow from family and friends to give them.

The police thought we were part of them and kept on telling me and my mum to confess, me, cry cry baby kept on crying😂😂, after so much ado, they brought my phone and told me to call our accomplice, I quickly dialled the last call in their presence which was my sister, where are you she asked impariently as she had been expecting us since we called her last at the park, they've arrested us as 419, call daddy O, I said, quickly telling her the name of the police station I saw outside the building,

When my aunt and sister came and explained to them that we were victims and new in portharcourt, only on our way to pay them a visit, these policemen told them to bring 100,000 naira each which is about 130$ to bail us, the fraud system itself that kept me wondering if this isn't a plan of the police and the fraudsters, who is even the bigger fraudster? To cut the already long story short, my uncle who was a retired air commodore sent some air force men to our rescue,

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Immediately they matched into the police station with their regalia, the atmosphere changed they started treating me and my mum with more respect, begging us to forgive them for the way we were treated that they never knew we were innocent citizens, all this act was so we won't take up a case against them.

I was happy we got free, I learnt my lesson to be extra careful in a new environment, also police is not our friend and it's good to have connections too in this country.

This post is in response to the hive learners weekly contest week 38, edition 1.

Thank you for reading❤❤

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 last year  

God saved you and your mom oo..... Portharcourt?? A friend told me it's risky for someone new to come to that city because there are scammers everywhere and you won't notice until you are scammed.

One thing I don't do is telling bike or cab man that I don't know a particular place. They use that as an advantage to extort you. I normally play along too.

Thank God your uncle sent some air force men to come rescue you. #100,000 each? Shame on the police. Where on earth do they want you to get the money from?

May God always keep His children.

 last year  

He did O, it would have been another story entirely,

Haha😂 I do that too now, sense no go kill udms hehe

Real shame on them, no difference between them and the fraudsters.

Amen sis, thank you so much.

 last year  

Don´t mind them. Our country is already a mess with people like them.

 last year  

Hmmmm
Nigeria my country...I am so sorry for what you and your mum went through. I won't blame any of you both for the action taken by telling the taxi man you didn't know where you are going and other info. You guys were new in pH and needed to find your way not knowing that you entered the lions den...so bad that evil men are scattered everywhere now. Thank God your mum maintained her ground of no money.

And then those police men, aren't they trained on ways of investigating issues?

Can you imagine billing u guys 100k after treating you people badly for no reason...
Thieves 😂😂
Thank God for the connection oo
It saved the day
Thanks for sharing your story with us 👌👍

 last year  

Thank you sir, truly it's not meant to be a bad thing but evil people everywhere made it seem so, I guess their so called charm didn't work on her,

My question exactly, it's so bad, I just pray daily not to have any problem that will lead to Police because they are not reliable in investigating properly they are just after their pockets,

Haha😂😂 Connection is the way to go now O in Nigeria, May God help us,

Thanks for dropping this wonderful comment.

 last year  

My God, what if the fraudsters succeed? What if you didn't know anyone in the authorities? This country needs a great change, a lot of people has suffered this humilation.
So sorry for all the hurt 🤕 it's in the past now but I know it still hurts.

 last year  

I'm thankful they didn't, as for the police, I know a lot of people who were not so lucky, I pray we see the much needed change this country needs soon.

Thank you Flora, it feels great to see you stop by.

 last year  

Sadly the individuals who are supposed to protect us are part of those terrorizing the innocent citizens of Nigeria.

 last year  

Seriously, it's so disheartening

I'm happy to know that nothing bad happened to you both, especially from the taxi driver, and to top it up police n their wahala no b here ooo.

Thanks to that experience you were able to learn to be more vigilant, not only in a new environment though, but even within too bcos they are everywhere.

 last year  

Was glad too because it could have been worst,

Yes I am , everybody is a suspect now 😂😂

 last year  

Wow, such a big deal of an experience. There is nothing bad being new in an environment, its just that some people are just wicked.

 last year  

Police is never our friend! All that matters to them is just their pocket, so they don't mind beating an innocent soul to confess otherwise just to suit their terms. Thank God you and your mom were vindicated.

 last year  

As in, it's just so sad that the people meant to help us are the ones brutalising us.

Oh that was a scary ordeal. Glad you and your mom were ok. It's sad to know that after that traumatizing experience with those scammers, the people that should have protectes the innocent are corrupted too. 😥 I think this happens anywhere. There are really police that are corrupt. Sad truth.

 last year  

Omo... It's not easy. You don't have to be a criminal to be arrested. And even when you are wrongfully arrested you will still be required to pay money before you are set free. Is that not kidnapping? Just that it's done under the protection of the law.

Just so wrong. I'm glad nothing happened to you and your mom though. Both from the scammers and the police side, it could have gone horribly wrong.

Thank you for sharing this with us.

 last year  

Hmm, I learnt that, and growing up, I try to avoid any problem that will lead me to have an encounter with the police, because that day, I lost trust and gave up on the system.

I'm glad too,

Thanks for stopping by, I'm greatful.

Lmao, once you hear them arguing about possessions in a vehicle, run o, thank God you and your mom came out safe and sound.

Cry cry baby. @glorydee hehe

 last year  

True O, I discovered late about that kind of strategies used by scammer, now I don't even wait for any stranger to start up a topic with me.

Abi na, small girl like me then😂😂😂

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 last year  

Wow! Thanks hivebuzz