Patience Adamu, a 28-year-old residence of Talba Estate Kpakungu, Minna, has swindled over 50 job seekers to the tune of N10 million using the facade of the National Examination Council (NECO) in Minna, Niger State, police authority said.
Each job seeker had to pay N500,000 for a “job replacement at NECO”. Though they were allowed to make the payment in two phases.
Patience in connivance with Mathew Samson, her husband committed the organised crime in partnership with Godwin Mathew, Emmanuel David and Peter Samuel — all from Kaduna State.
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During interrogation, she told the police she wanted to use the money to scale up her business and refund after she had recouped enough.
Wasiu Abiodun, the Niger State police spokesman, in a statement, Tuesday, said, the command on May 20, 2022, got a tip-off “that suspected syndicate of job scammers were sighted at a hotel in Minna, documenting some applicants for replacement into the National Examination Council (NECO) Headquarters, Minna.”
“During interrogation, Patience confessed that she had contacted about ten unsuspecting members of the public since the year 2020 to date for a job replacement offer at NECO with a payment of N500,000 each,” the police statement reads. “She confessed further that each of the victims made half payment and were to pay the balance after issuing them with an appointment letter.”
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To make the process believable, Patience had to arrange “fake documentation for the victims as one of them was pressurising for the next stage of the job placement,” Abiodun said, adding that three persons from Kaduna were complicit in the scam.
The police spokesman in his statement added: “She said her intention was to raise money for business purposes and to refund the victims afterwards and that she has no employment offer at NECO or anywhere.”
“In the course of the investigation, over 50 victims have been discovered to have fallen into this act of job racketeering with an amount of over ten (10) million naira swindled,” Abiodun stated while advising the public to be wary of job scammers.
