Officials of the Lagos State
Taskforce on Environmental and Special Offences (Enforcement) Unit have
arrested a man for selling phones stuffed with ‘fufu’ to unsuspecting
buyers at the Computer Village, Ikeja, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.
After his arrest, it was discovered
that instead of the original phone, an empty Phone Case is stuffed with
fufu to make it heavy and look like the normal phone. It is then sold to
unsuspecting members of the public.
The suspect, 24 years old Samson
Adebiyi from Ogun State, was arrested on Wednesday at the Computer
Village after the man, Semiu Ambali, who first fell victim to his
antics, set him up.
According to Adebiyi, those selling fufu phones to unsuspecting buyers are many at the Computer Village.
The syndicates usually have several
phones on them and do not have shops at the Computer Village. They
approach a customer and display their phones and once that customer is
interested, they bring out the particular phone the person wants to buy,
remove the battery, test it so that the customer can be sure it is
okay.
In the process of the customer being
distracted, the seller quickly replaces it with another phone (but of
the same brand). The only difference is that this one is fake and is
stuffed with Fufu
Once the unsuspecting buyer accepts
the phone and pays, the sellers relocate to another part of the Computer
Village where no one could see them and play the same tricks on others.
On this occasion, Ambali was shown the phone he wanted to buy by Adebiyi, who agreed to sell the phone at N8,000.
According to him, the phone was
tested and certified okay and that at the moment he was distracted, the
phone was replaced with a fufu phone and that he only realised this when
he got home.
The following day, he spent almost
the whole day looking for the suspected swindler and as luck would have
it, he caught up with him and alerted the police.
Instead of grabbing him, he decided
to play the same game all over again with him. He agreed to pay N4,000
for another phone that had been tested and certified okay by Adebiyi. He
pretended to be distracted, only for the fake phone syndicate to
exchange it with another fufu phone.
It was then the task-force officials who were lurking around, grabbed Adebiyi and took him to their office and detained him.
The suspect confessed to the act,
saying that he did it to make ends meet. He said several of his
colleagues were still at the Computer Village engaging in the same act.
Adebiyi said he used to be a cobbler
and that since the business was not lucrative, he decided to engage in
selling fake Fufu phones
Taskforce Chairman, Bayo Sulaiman
said the taskforce had received several complaints about the activities
of syndicates selling fufu phones, saying this was why it raided the
Computer Village recently to stop street trading.
He said the suspect would be charged to court and punished if found guilty.
