I started this series of Different Ways Different People Steal In Nigeria last Monday, July 23, 2019. Please, ensue that you read that first part of it in order to get the true picture of the reason behind my story.
This is the Part 2 in the series. Interestingly, it is of two parts. Come along with me as I share those parts with you.
Story #1
A few weeks after I resumed for my new job at one of the first-generation banks in Lagos Island, Nigeria, one of my bosses came to my seat and said: “There’s something I’d like you to do for me. I’ll tell you the nature of the assignment by tomorrow morning. Please, remind me in case I forget to do so.
My boss, as I expected, came to my seat the next morning, a few minutes after our 8 A.M. resumption time, without me reminding him, and said: “The assignment I want you to do for me is for you to get me four of your recent passport photographs. I would also like you to talk to nine of your friends to get me four of their recent passport photographs, which means four passport photographs each from the ten of you.
“I will give you some money for the ten of you to pay for your photographs and some extra money as my sign of appreciation of your expected kind gesture . When you bring the photographs, I’ll tell you what I want to use them for.”
As a young man, barely 20-years-old, and with little or no experience about life, I accepted my boss’s request without questioning. Surprisingly, I got more than twenty people who were ready to play ball, provided they would get something in return. I selected nine out of that large number and submitted their names, along with mine, to my boss in the office, the next morning, and he was excited about it.
With that excitement in his mind, he gave me the money he promised to give me and my friends. I gave out the money to my friends, as directed, and by the third day all the passport photographs were ready for me to take to my boss.
After admiring them, he gave me some money and directed me to one of his friends at the Nigeria Immigration office, for him to help me obtain ten international passports, in my name and in the names of my nine friends.
I paid the man N10 (ten naira) for each of the ten international passports he assisted me to procure. That meant that I paid N100 (one hundred naira) for ten international passports, compared to its current price or cost of almost N40,000 (forty thousand naira).
On presenting the ten international passports to my boss, he offered me a seat at a corner of his office, and asked me to wait for the next instruction. While sitting and waiting for his next instruction, he pulled out a booklet of what used to be known and called ‘Form A’ out of his drawer, and gave it to me, saying: “Go through it.”
Form A, for your information, was a Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, document used by Nigerian travellers to apply for foreign exchange they intend to spend at their foreign destinations. Another name for that foreign exchange was basic travelling allowance, BTA.
After guiding me on how to complete the form, I followed his instruction and completed ten of them; in my name and in the names of my nine friends. He later went through the forms, one after the other, and confirmed that they were properly completed.
Before then, he had given a man called Deji some money to procure ten tax clearance certificates on each of those ten names. Deji, as I later discovered, was the kingpin of the gang forgers in Lagos, Nigeria, whose occupation was issuing fake documents, including academic certificates, visas, and international passports to interested members of the Nigerian public. His office was at a place called ‘Oluwole’ in Lagos Island, almost opposite the Lagos Central Mosque.
With the tax clearance certificates from Deji and the completed Form A, my boss used them to apply for ten different BTA. As an insider, who knew the right buttons to press, he indeed pressed all the necessary buttons and had his ten applications approved.
Ironically, while some genuine applicants of BTA could not get approval for their applications, my boss whose applications were all ‘cooked up,’ got ten of them fully approved. The worse part of the story was that he sold all the BTA at the black market, just behind Bristol Hotel.
That was what my boss did until his death, few years prior to his retirement. But before then, he had already built several houses in different areas of Lagos, including Kujore Street in Ojota; Shonibare Street in Maryland, and Silvia Crescent in Anthony Village.
What do you call this? Pen or biro robbery? Whether biro or pen robbery, stealing is stealing.
Story #2
In 1996, a young advance-fee fraudster from Edo State, Nigeria, went to one of the new-generation banks in Apapa, Lagos, to open a current account. He paid an initial deposit of N2,347,000 (two million, three hundred and forty-seven thousand naira) into the account on the spot.
The guy had just collected that money in cash form one of the Apapa-based Lebanese, who was notorious for assisting advance-fee fraudsters in Nigeria, at that time, to move their money from any part of the world to Nigeria.
The bank manager, for obvious reasons, was all around him as he was filling the account-opening form. He, at a point, decided to assist the guy to complete the form.
After he had done that, he took his time to explain and to guide the guy on how to run the account successfully, without the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, discovering the source of the money that came into his account. That was the common practice among most bank managers. at that time. That was because they needed depositors with fat deposits by all means
Five days after opening the account, the guy increased his bank balance to N6, 500,000 (six million five hundred thousand naira), with another bulk deposit of N4,153,000 (four million, one hundred and fifty-three thousand naira).
Exactly thirteen (13) days after opening the account, that account-owner died mysteriously in his sleep. Immediately after receiving the sad news of his death, the bank manager quickly withdrew all the money in his account and closed it permanently.
Did you know why and how the bank manager got the courage to do what he did? Because the late guy, with his advice, opened the account with a fake name. Instead of using his real name, he used the fake name that he used to ply his 4-1-9 trade.
How did I learn about this story? I’ll tell you.
On the day the late guy went to the bank to open his current account, he was accompanied there by his fiance, whose first name was Leticia. So, it was Leticia who shared this story with me.
Leticia also shared the bank story with her late fiance’s parents. After doing that, she led them to the bank to the see the manager, with a few taking over the bank account of their deceased son and fiance.
On receiving them in his office, the bank manager confirmed to them that their late loved one, as a matter of fact, had some huge amount of money in his account. He however, told them that it would be very difficult for them to get the money out the deceased’s bank account, as a result of the fake and controversial account name. Meanwhile, he had already stolen all the money in question.
At the end of their meeting, the manager suggesting to them to come back to the bank in three weeks’ time. That was to enable him discuss the matter with his boss at the headquarters of his bank in Lagos Island.
Immediately after Leticia and his late fiancee’s parents left the bank, the bank manager hurriedly tendered his letter of resignation. As soon as his letter of resignation was accepted, he left the bank and moved out Lagos, to avoid being arrested, prosecuted, and possibly jailed.
By the time Leticia and her team returned to the bank on the appointed date, the manager was nowhere to be found. In a justified anger, they reported the matter to the headquarters of the bank, and later to the police.
Unfortunately for them, nothing came out of the case. After they had explored all avenues without success, they decided to leave the matter to God.
That was how they the late 419er and members of his family lost a whole N6,500,000 (six million, five hundred thousand naira).
What lesson did you learn from this second story? For me, I learnt that it is not good for anybody to open a bank account with a fake name. Because if anything happens, as it did to the Edo guy, there’ll be little or no hope for your relations to recover the money it.
I can go on and on and on with the stories of different ways bankers steal money and other valuables from both their customers and their employers. I won’t be surprised if you know some of those ways.
So, never you blame nor kill yourself whenever you see a banker spending money or doing some money-related things that you cannot do. Some of them must have made their money though one of these funny and illegal means.
…to be continued
