In a three-bedroom flat in Ilado, within the Olorunda Local Council Development Area of Lagos State, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) agents from the Badagry Area Command have discovered what they believe to be a fraudulent university. According to reports, 106 young people were saved by the security agency from the program.
The suspected owner, who is accused of promising admission to a foreign institution to potential students from all over Nigeria and other West African nations, was also arrested as a result of the operation.
Early Monday morning, following many days of intelligence gathering and clandestine monitoring, NSCDC personnel carried out the raid.
The corps asserts that the organization falsely advertised itself online as a distance-learning center associated with an international university despite the fact that it lacked a legal name, registration, signboard, or acknowledged campus.
The operation was launched in response to solid intelligence regarding the activities occurring at the flat, according to Chief Superintendent Gbenga Ekunola, who is the Badagry Area Commander of the NSCDC.
We have credible information about what’s going on there. Our agents meticulously monitored the premises for many days prior to conducting the operation. The owner is cooperating with our inquiry after his detention, and the pupils are in safe custody, according to Ekunola.
Based on what is known thus far, the majority of the rescued youths are in the age bracket of 19–24 and hail from various regions in Nigeria, such as Kogi, Oyo, and a number of states in the north. Some of them allegedly came from nearby nations including Togo, Cameroon, and Niger after being recruited online.
According to the NSCDC, victims were asked to pay processing costs and admissions fees anywhere from N200,000 to N1.5 million. Additionally, some foreign nationals were allegedly offered admission to a foreign university and paid between $400 and $500.
Additionally, participants were allegedly obligated to bring in more students in return for financial commissions, according to investigators.
Participants were supposedly promised increasing earnings based on the number of new recruits they introduced, according to the corps. The recruitment model bore similarities to a Ponzi or chain-marketing scheme.
After spending $400 to enrol, one of the rescued people allegedly told detectives that he had already started earning referral commissions after convincing his brother in Kogi State to join the program.
Additional information uncovered by the investigation pointed to certain participants’ purported involvement in online product promotion, with commissions accruing from both product sales and the acquisition of new members.
Concerned about the development, Ekunola stated that it seemed like a lot of parents didn’t know what their children were up to in Badagry.
“We have started getting in touch with their relatives. We were informed by one parent that their child had informed them that he was not planning to attend university in Badagry, but rather to learn a trade. According to him, it’s evident that a lot of parents were completely unaware of what was happening.
The 106 boys who were rescued will be properly profiled, he said, and then their families would be reunited with them once the investigations are over.
According to the area commander, anyone responsible for running the alleged criminal institution would face legal consequences.
He went on to say that the scope of the inquiry had been expanded to find out who was behind the operation, find out if there were any other accomplices, and find out if there are any more schemes like this going on in the nation.