In Nigeria’s chaotic job market, the experience of Mr Alabi, Ms Ashade, and others in the hands of fly-by-night recruitment firms appears commonplace, a PREMIUM TIMES’ investigation showed.

In late 2019, months after PREMIUM TIMES’
reporter submitted data across recruitment
platforms while posing as a job applicant, Gboyega
Alabi, an old friend and job applicant, sent in an
application from a recruitment agency called Primix
Consult. Located on Number 6, Remilekun Street,
off Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, Lagos, the company
claimed to be recruiting on behalf of banks and
other companies in Lagos and other parts of the
country.
Since this reporter did not get the invitation directly,
he was advised to “gate-crash” ––a popular
catchphrase among job seekers, which implores
one to attend a job interview even when uninvited
for such–– but declined. Many desperate job
seekers do ‘gate-crash’ quite often, and a few lucky
ones get picked for job opportunities.
Mr Alabi and one other job seeker who attended the
interview at Primix Consult office in Surulere told
this newspaper they paid N5,500 at the interview
venue and were given assurance of job placements.
They were also asked to enroll for “Empowerment
training scheme”, while anticipating their job calls.
Over a year after the ‘interview’ was conducted, they
never heard from Primix Consult, according to Mr
Alabi, who now works with an IT firm in Yaba. He
added that the telephone details given to them were
also no longer reachable after some months.
In February, PREMIUM TIMES’ reporter visited the
office address used by Primix Consult at No 6,
Remilekun Street, Surulere, but there was no trace
of any such company operating from the building. A
middle-aged man who sat in the only office space
inside the building told PREMIUM TIMES that such
company never operated from the building.

Primix Old address and new signboard announcing
job at 6, Remilekun Street, Surulere, Lagos
Surprisingly, at the front of the same building used
by Primix Consult, PREMIUM TIMES found yet
another signpost by an unnamed firm announcing
vacancies for different job positions. When this
reporter requested details of the new “unnamed”
firm from the man found inside the building, he
claimed to know nothing about it.
Meanwhile, further checks by PREMIUM TIMES
showed that Primix Consult has no digital footprint
whatsoever.
Musiliu Akande, an Ibadan-based career coach, told
PREMIUM TIMES in an interview that many of the
firms often change their location addresses and
corporate names over time, in order to defraud
unsuspecting job seekers.
“Many unsuspecting job seekers are likely to fall
victim to the antics of the same fraudulent
recruitment firm more than once,” he said.

“This is because the firms often change their
names and location address and other identities
with which people can trace them.”
Like Primix, like ONeal
Like Primix Consult, ONeal is one other recruitment
agency that suddenly disappeared from its old base
on the same Surulere axis of Lagos. Located on
Number 1, Babatunde Street, Off Ogunlana Drive,
Surulere, the company boasted of recruiting for top
firms in the country.
Biola Ibidapo, an applicant who got invitations from
the company when it operated from its Surulere
address told PREMIUM TIMES the firm suddenly
exited its office location, months after they had
been promised job.
They never heard anything about it afterwards, said
the applicant. Another applicant who does not want
her name in print said she declined to go for their
interviews after she heard complaints that ONeal
was recruiting for GNLD marketing.
When PREMIUM TIMES visited the office address
used by O’Neal in February, this reporter found that
the building had been abandoned and the gate shut.

Number 1, Babatunde Street, Off Ogunlana Drive,
Surulere – Oneal former office
A trader who sold from a kiosk opposite the
building told this reporter nobody had any idea of
what went wrong with the company. She added that
they also had no clue about its new office address
or the whereabouts of its founders.
In Abeokuta, Ogun State, Deborah Ashade and two
other graduates of the National Open University
(NOUN) told PREMIUM TIMES of a similar ordeal in
the hands of one Best Consult, a recruitment firm
operating from the Adigbe end of the Ogun State
capital. According to Ms Ashade and her friends, in
2020, the company sent them invitations for job
interviews and they paid N5,000 on the day of the
said interviews. They never heard from the company
thereafter.
When PREMIUM TIMES visited the location of the
company in Abeokuta last March, residents said the
recruitment firm suddenly vacated the space and
nothing was heard of its founders’ whereabouts
afterwards.
In Nigeria’s chaotic job market, the experience of
Mr Alabi, Ms Ashade, and others in the hands of
fly-by-night recruitment firms appears
commonplace, as PREMIUM TIMES’ investigation
showed. Unscrupulous companies working as
recruitment firms often trick unsuspecting applicants
into paying “fees” for jobs they hardly get.

Fly-by-night
One clammy evening in January 2015, Subomi
Samuel said he received a text message from a
certain recruitment firm called ‘CEO Resource’
directing him to come for a job interview. Mr
Samuel, a 2012 Engineering graduate of The
Polytechnic Ibadan, had spent two years of post-
NYSC life seeking employment across Lagos and
different parts of the South-west.
“I thought that was the end of my unemployment
frustration,” he quipped, “But I was wrong!”
Mr Samuel recalled that the first sign of danger he
noticed was the poor grammatical structure of the
invite message. But he was too desperate to care,
he admitted.
Upon getting to the venue of the “interview” at Pen
Cinema, Agege, he noticed yet again that the
interviewers looked quite “haggard and hungry.”
“But they spoke eloquently and were able to
convince many of us to part with our money,” he
said.
By the time the company was done, Mr Samuel
said he and numerous other young people had
parted with N10, 500 each, to secure employment
in various organisations.
Their ordeals began two months after they attended
the ‘interview’ and nothing was heard from the
‘organisers’. Mr Samuel said whenever he placed a
call through to demand clarification, he was assured
that they would help him secure a job.
“Since I was teaching at the time, and I had some
money to survive, I had hope that things could
indeed get better,” he said. “But few months after
the interview, I could no longer reach them on
phone.”
Mr Samuel said when he finally visited the
company’s office at Pen Cinema, Agege, they had
vacated the place.
“I was devastated,” he told PREMIUM TIMES. “But
luckily for me, I got another job shortly after.”
In December 2019, four years after Mr Samuel’s
ordeal, PREMIUM TIMES’ got details of yet another
company named Fad Consult which had many
graduates pay for job placement using the same
address as ‘CEO Resource’ at Pen Cinema, Agege.
Two graduates who fell victim told this reporter that
they were fleeced of N10,000 each and never got
any job.

Plaza Opposite Oando, Pen Cinema, Agege, Lagos
Located opposite Oando fuel station on the ever-
busy Pen Cinema axis of Agege in Lagos, the
company was able to convince many job seekers
with its strategic office address.
But when this newspaper visited the office location,
shop owners said the firm had vacated the
building. A trader told this newspaper that many
disappointed job seekers had visited the plaza to
lament the disappearance of the phony companies
in the past.
GNLD ‘Marketing’
Apart from fly-by-night recruitment firms, PREMIUM
TIMES’ findings showed that many job seekers have
also fallen victim of being lured into different forms
of ‘marketing’ jobs, notably for GNLD products.
Golden Neo-Life Diamite International ( GNLD) says
it is a pioneer in whole food nutrition
supplementation, with a commitment to end the
trend of poor wellness and poverty. It has footprint
in different parts of the world.

In Nigeria, however, promoters of the brand rely
heavily on marketers to sell their products.
PREMIUM TIMES’ findings revealed that they recruit
young unemployed people and convince them to
become distributors who would then purchase the
products on discounted rates. The young marketers
would share these products and earn profits from
them, while the income realized is determined by
the number of products sold.
“Too many fraudulent recruitment firms latch on
Nigeria’s unemployment situation to lure desperate
job seekers into the GNLD network,” says Charles
Ike, a job seeker who claimed to have paid
N10,000 at a recruitment agency in Ogba before
being lured into the ‘GNLD marketing’ scheme. Mr
Ike said there was nothing wrong with the GNLD
marketing scheme itself, but many fraudulent
companies deceive young graduates with promises
of ‘lucrative’ jobs only to lure them into the
marketing scheme.
“I never wanted to participate in GNLD because I
find it very stressful. But these guys (recruitment
firms) would not tell you the job invitation is for
GNLD product marketing. You’d only know this
when you get to the interview venue, and often after
making payment,” he lamented.
Another job seeker told this reporter that he had a
similar experience at a recruitment firm in Isolo area
of Lagos after paying N8,500 for “license” and
“certification” as a nutritionist. The payment, he
was told, was to certify him as an eligible marketer
of GNLD products.
At least two other applicants told this newspaper of
their experience at ONeal recruitment firm wherein
many job seekers were lured into marketing of
different nutrition products.
Checks by PREMIUM TIMES revealed that ONeal
has no known physical address and no functional
website, since its old office at Surulere is now
abandoned and under lock.
In May, PREMIUM TIMES called a telephone number
listed by the recruitment firm in its job invitation
messages to some young job seekers but it was
received by a lady who claimed to have left the
company since 2016. She also claimed she knew
nothing about the company or its founders’
whereabouts.
https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/467711-job-scam-2-how-fly-by-night-firms-fleece-unemployed-graduates-lure-them-into-marketing.html

i dont know why people hate marketing job in this our country nigeria

Quite sad. The govt should look into this