Forty-one (41) Ghanaians have been imprisoned in Nigeria for defrauding people under the guise of providing them jobs with e-commerce company QNet. These Ghanaians were all convicted last year of defrauding others by the Obaga Ikeja-Lagos Magistrate Court and sentenced to six years of imprisonment each in hard labour, the New Publisher reports.
The imprisoned Ghanaians were themselves victims of fraud who were lured into Nigeria by a syndicate of QNet kidnappers who held them hostage, manipulated them, and forced them to deceive other Ghanaians into Nigeria.
One of the imprisoned Ghanaians, 21-year-old Esther Agyemang, who is currently serving 6 years, on Kumasi-based Angel FM, revealed how the syndicate forces their victims to lie about being in countries such as France so as to lure unsuspecting Ghanaians to part with huge sums of money that end up in their hands.
In the case of Esther Agyemang, a friend of hers who was a victim himself lured her with lies that he was in France through being a part of QNet and encouraged her to join him. She raised GH¢20,000 and joined him, only to realize that it was a scam, as was the modus operandi of the cartel.
Esther Agyemang herself was forced to scam a trusted friend of hers into leaving Ghana for Nigeria. Her friend, upon her arrival in Nigeria in readiness to leave for France, got a hint that it was a scam and fled. The Nigerian police got wind of the matter and swooped on the victims and the kidnappers. However, the kidnappers had escaped, and only the Ghanaians were arrested.
The Nigerian authorities quickly processed them for court and got them jailed. According to Esther Agyemang, they were not allowed to defend themselves in court. She appealed to the Ghanaian authorities to intervene and get them justice.
“I am appealing to Ghanaian authorities to come to our aid because we do not have anyone to talk for us. We are over 40 Ghanaians who were jailed by the Obaga Ikeja-Lagos Magistrate Court. I have already served one year of my sentence, and so have my colleagues, but things are very tough, though we are innocent”, she lamented.
Stories of people being duped using the QNet business as a means abound. Many Ghanaians have lost huge sums of money and have been left stranded in countries such as Nigeria, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire, and others.
Arrest of Qnet agents and recruits in Ghana
It would be recalled that in 2021, dozens of Qnet agents and hundreds of recruits were arrested in the Eastern Regional town of Koforidua by the Ghana Police Service.
The special operation was carried out by police and ambulance service personnel from the Counter-Terrorism and Concentration Camp located in Huhunya on Friday, targeting places where Qnet agents operate and target their victims.
The suspects included some West African nationals. Some women and their children were among the recruits found at the premises of the Qnet branches. They have been arrested for defrauding hundreds of victims under false pretenses.
It followed complaints by scores of Ghanaians and some West African nationals of being scammed by agents of network marketing company Qnet Ghana.
Many Independent Representatives (IRs) in Koforidua, the Eastern Regional capital, operating as agents of the company were using what appeared to be deceptive business modules to recruit people as independent representatives.
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