Daniel Anokwuru
As the economy bites harder, with many Nigerians losing their jobs, the desperation to secure a new job, has landed most applicants into bigger problem. Some, after losing their jobs, invests their last savings, as either registration, training or settlement for securing a new job, with fake recruitment agents, hoping that a new job would soon come, but such expectation never comes to pass, as the agents are actually hunting for their daily bread, without any job to offer. These perpetrators also extend their antics to various online platforms. They cash in on Nigeria’s rising unemployment rate, to defraud their unsuspecting victims. The victims, are made to believe that there are existing vacancies, judging from the advertisements they display, whereas no such vacancies exist.
Recently, it was reported that kidnappers had begun to send text messages, inviting job seekers for job interviews, but they hold their victims hostage as soon as they show up at the address provided, as venue of the interview. The abductors then demand for ransom from family members of the job seekers while some, are allegedly sold for rituals. Checks revealed that these fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated in the way they operate, thereby, making it difficult to differentiate between them and genuine recruiters.
The activities of fake recruitment agents have dominated most states in Nigeria. Their system of operation is to advertise non existing vacancies, online and through handbills and posters, which they display at strategic locations, with only their phone numbers, boldly written, without any traceable operational address or the name of the companies where such vacancies exists. The jumbo salary they advertise is very tempting that anyone seeking for employment would want to give a trial. Their caption, is also very catchy, as they state clearly that they have jobs for both educated and non educated. Therefore, as a dropout, you have no reason not to have a job.
The salary of the non educated candidates is actually what graduates earn in some well established industries. In their salary scale, a casual worker that works up to 25 days in a month, earns between N 45,000 to N 50,000. The fraudsters, usually claim to be recruiting for beverages companies, factories, schools, airport, oil and gas industries and, in some cases, they will promise both accommodation and free feeding.
One astonishing thing discovered by the reporter, during this study, was that, most of these fake agents are actually school dropouts. They operate in different locations, with different phone numbers. Once their unsuspecting victim calls them, they will first demand to know the caller’s location, before giving out any information.
It was also gathered, that once they have convinced their victim, to pay for registration fee, in some cases, they will also, place a percentage, on the applicant’s salary, how much that would be forfeited to them for a particular period of time. Out of desperation to earn a living, the applicant, registers with different agents. But once they have registered, getting the job becomes a hard nut to crack.
“When I lost my banking job, I registered with three different agents because I was desperate to secure a new job. But what I discovered was that almost all of them operate the same way. After paying for the registration, the three agents I registered with started offering me job in northern part of the country, with poor salary. They knew I would never relocate to the North, with such salary. I asked them what about the job they had advertised, they told me they had filled the vacancies. After some months, I got frustrated and stopped calling them,” Orjiakor Grace, a victim of fake recruitment agents, said.
In the midst of all these fraudulent activities, one wonders why the agencies charged with the responsibility of tackling such ugly menace seems to be handicapped in combating the issue. The Advertising Practitioners Council of Nigeria (APCON) whose main vision, is to promote responsible and ethical advertising practice, acting as the conscience of society and watchdog for the consumers, whilst managing the needs and interests of the stakeholders in Nigeria’s Advertising Industry, seems not to be exhibiting their power in regulating and controlling the practice of advertising, towards these agents, in all its ramification and aspects, as provided in the APCON Act No. 55 of 1988, and revised by Act No. 93 of 1992.
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Also, one hardly sees the Lagos State Signage and Advertising Agency, (LASAA), the agency saddled with the responsibility of regulating and controlling outdoor advertising and signage displays in Lagos State, clamping down on these fraudsters, with full force, as being witnessed, when it comes to the signage of other well established organisations. The activities of the fake agents, contravene the LASAA function of maintaining a database of all outdoor advertisements, their owners, and operators as well as their location and reason for business. All the posters sighted by the reporter, advertising for job, during a tour, round Lagos metropolis, have no location or traceable address.
Another victim, Paul Ohuabunwa, said he had applied for a job he saw online, hopping that it was real. He said he was surprised, when the agent started milking him and other applicants of their last savings in the name of training them for the job.
“I saw an advertisement online, for Human Resource Officer. I applied for the job because I have two years experience in HR job. Same day I forwarded my CV to the email address provided, I received a message inviting me for an interview the next day, in Ikeja area. I was very surprised and happy, believing that maybe, they found my qualifications most suitable. I attended the interview where I met about 40 other candidates. Instead of the normal interview known to us, they moved us all into a hall, put on the projector, and started giving us lectures. They said we should pay N 12,000, for our training materials, that they needed to train us for the job we were about to take. Some of us paid while others left. After the two days training, they demanded another N 150,000, saying it was for the product the company we would work for would supply to us. But I never applied for any marketing job. So, I left angrily,” Ohuabunwa narrated.
Another victim, Cyndy Blaise, said: “One of the agents I registered with sent me to a journey of life. I got lost and stranded too, only for him to tell me sorry that he forgot that they had already recruited there, that I should wait and not worry. All the last week nonstop rain romanced me extremely. I got to Mile 2 and had just N200, for a journey of about N 1500. After virtually swimming through all the bad roads, I discovered that I was just being dribbled. That was when I lost hope and gave up.”
When the reporter contacted the Inquiry and complaints centre of the LASAA, the officer that received the call, who identified herself as Simi, told the reporter to send an email to info@lasaa.com, that the mail would be responded to immediately. The reporter sent the mail, as she requested, but is yet to receive any response, three days after sending the mail, before filing in this report.
