How man for defrauded participants over N48M with scam trade-fair



By Lolo Ayaba

The Ogun State Police Command is currently interrogating one Abah Smith Emmanuel, for allegedly defrauding over 8,000 persons within and outside Nigeria, of N48 million through a well orchestrated scam trade fair in Abeokuta.

The organisers of Abah smith trade fair reportedly requested interested participants to pay a gate fee of N3000 for each day of the fair and N6, 000 for the two days trade fair into a zenith bank account number

101559273, with an account name Abah Smith global resources limited.

It was learned that participants who paid before October 1, 2018, were assured of participating in the raffle draw that would qualify them to purchase a plot of land or a car with their cryptocurrency, while participants who paid at the gate on the days of the fair would only be entitled to make purchases with their cryptocurrency.

Abah Smith and his wife, Sophia, were alleges to have informed would be participants through whatsapp and Telegram social platforms, that they had imported goods like: home theater, high end phones, laptops, designer clothes, bags and shoes and food items.

Participants who came from different parts of the country, to the fair in two Hummer buses

Those who came from Edo state came with a luxury bus. It was gathered that participants even came from neighbouring West African countries like Ghana, Cotounu and Togo with high hopes of using their crypto currency to purchase items only to discover it was a scam.

The fair which held in an opened roof of a dilapidated building where where over 12000 participants were subjected to the scourging sun and rainfall at Baptist Primary School (Omolayo),Idi Aba, Abeokuta, Ogun state .

According to Olowookere Bishop, “on Saturday everybody went back to the venue again with hope of shopping, as was promised by his scam Admins yesterday Friday. Those that got there by 6am today were no 368,etc. Some people slept at the venue, some in the buses that brought them. They started accreditation on time, but again kept people scattered and waiting aimlessly for the gate of the shopping arena to be opened. As at 11.30am, no sign of shopping arrangement. Unfortunately people busted the gate open, when I entered the hall some people were already comfortably seated in the shopping arena, and were being addressed by Abahsmith scam Admins. Some few bags of rice, tubbers of yams, bunch of rotten plantains, palm oil, groundnut oil, few pairs of Okrika shoes/clothes bought from Aswani market were on display. The scam Admins then provoked the tensed crowd by suggesting that each participant pick one item to represent three thousand two items for two tickets. At the same time it began to rain the crowd became uncontrollable.

Some of us regrouped and decided to take the fraudster Abahsmith scam group up. We went to the Area Command, ten of us, I represented the Lagos group, the security operatives the organizers brought ended up detaining Abah Smith's brother in law, pending when Abah Smith showed up. While we were concluding our statement, the police picked up Abah Smith, brought him to the station.

Narrating her experience, during the fair, Rose Bata a participants who paid N12, 000 for herself and her son, said that I travelled all the way from Abuja through Lagos to Abeakuta on the 4th of October. I stayed in a guess house called Gate way for two nights 4th and 5th. I was at the venue on the 5th from 6.30am throughout in the rain till past six in the evening. The following day I was there early enough hopping to see a better reception from the previous day but it was d worst. While I was there I broke down in health and had to rush back to Lagos to take care of myself. Since then I have been in Lagos managing myself. When I got better, I travelled back to Abuja empty handed. I have my bank transfer details dated 08/09/2018 and tickets issued to me on the 5th intact. Abah smith cannot deny it. This money is nothing to me almost a hundred thousand naira paid for this nonsense trip I must collect my N12000 back from AbahSmith. Thank you very much. God Almighty will bless u for taking this giant step to see that AbahSmith is prosecuted.

Another participant Tony Olaide said Abah Smith Festival was a planned scam, with a wicked intentions, if not how can they be asking people to delete the screen shot payment proof. Immediately after issuing out tickets to people at the venue they collected all the tellers payment proof that people are physically having, so that many people will not be able to have any payment proof again to back up their claim if the needs arises.

The organizer is a heartless and wicked individual. Many people lost their phones and other valuables to the angry mob when everything broke down while this wicked heartless Abah Smith disappeared unexpectedly with his group. So many people health broke down because of the stressful situation. What about the two days accommodations expenses, apart from the two days gate fee, while some participants paid for 10, 20 people, even more. Yet they collected the tellers payment proof and asked all the screen shot proof to be deleted and his staff still collected a lot of money again at the venue for both days. Now, he is trying to deny all this payment, because it was all planned.

According to Sunday Francis, who came to the fair with about 25 paid participants, “Justice should be served in this matter, my younger brother has not gotten home till now because of his car that had overheating problem. I only trusted him like every other person who went for the festival and as an extrovert, I can't sit and watch things go wrong, was the reason I was trying to assists to make thing work properly at the venue

I also want justice served. Let Abah Smith send a device to everyone who paid if it is true that the devices are available. I came with a group of 25 person to the fair. I don't want a refund of the gate fee because it does not account properly for the transport people spent to Abeokuta”.

“But Abbah Smith has chosen to go to court for reason I think is selfish and unjust

I stand for truth and not lies, what he should have done was to send the devices (TV, lap tops, phones) to people in their various state if it's true that they are available”

Lamenting one of the participants, Oyebadie said Abah Smith scammed thousands of people with his calculated scam trade fair. The registration and ticket sharing on Saturday morning was all a charade to make participants think they would address Friday’s flaws using their induced confusion strategy to deceive people. Unfortunately it worked for them.

Now he has the guts to use the proceeds from the scam money to hire the service of a lawyer to fight the people he humiliated and oppressed.

According to Mabel, a participant, Abahsmith harvest/ trade fair was a monumental failure because of greed and the intent to defraud innocent participants. From the beginning there was no limit to the number of people who would participate in the trade fair, which was why even at the venue on Friday and Saturday Abah Smith's wife and agents kept collecting payment from unsuspecting participants, even when it was obvious that the paid participants were much more than the organisers could handle. The venue too was an issue, participants queued under the sun like people in IDP camps.

At a point it began to rain and we were drenched. Sincerely the fair was a horrible experience. When Abah Smith began to receive payment from participants in respect of the trade fair, that was when collation of paid participants should have started to enable him published a list of paid participants on the various platforms but no , he had to wait till Friday to go get bank statement. In this day of technology where people use mobile app, you can request for your bank statement online which will be sent to your mail instantly, it is no rocket science.

With all the disappointment on Friday, participants thought by Saturday the organizers would have put their house in order. But like Friday ugly episode, Saturday was a shameless repeat of failure, as they used the same confusion strategy employed by Abah smith and team, the previous day.

From 8am till 12noon no participants whose prove of payment was verified and given ticket was attended to. Rather, they were abandoned at the second gate of the venue like beggars for hours under the sun before the crowd went berserk.

When Contacted the spokesperson for the Ogun state police command Abimbola Oyeyemi, said that the case which was initially reported at Kemta police station, had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department , Eleweran , Abeokuta, for further investigation