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A Nepalese national, identified simply as Bista, has alleged that some officers at the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) headquarters in Abuja played a role in a fraudulent scheme that cost him about N1.6 billion.
Bista made the allegation during an interview with Martins Vincent Otse, the social media influencer known as VeryDarkMan, where he recounted how he and dozens of other foreign nationals were allegedly deceived with promises of relocating from Nigeria to Suriname for business.
According to him, the scheme was orchestrated by Emmanuel Masa, a Cameroonian resident in Nigeria, who claimed to have secured a partnership involving Azman Airlines and another firm to facilitate visas, travel documents and chartered flights to the South American country.
Bista said he first travelled to Abuja from Gambia in 2023 with six associates after being assured the arrangement was genuine.
He added that his confidence in the scheme increased after he was taken to the force headquarters, where, according to him, police officers attended a meeting with prospective travellers.
He alleged that one of the officers openly vouched for Masa, assuring those present that the arrangement was legitimate.
“After the involvement of the police, we had nothing to worry about,” he said.
Bista said he subsequently paid an initial $20,000 for the trip after Masa promised the flight would depart within two weeks.
When the departure failed to materialise, he said Masa blamed the delay on an insufficient number of passengers and persuaded him to recruit more people.
Believing the explanation, Bista said he invited more foreigners to Nigeria, while continuing to make payments for what he was told were flight tickets, landing permits, insurance, boarding passes and other processing fees.
According to him, the promised journey never happened despite months of assurances.
He further alleged that the situation worsened when police officers raided the hotel where the foreign nationals were staying and arrested many of them.
Although he was absent during the operation, Bista claimed Masa later demanded N4 million, allegedly to secure their release from police custody.
He said he paid the money in instalments before the foreigners were freed.
Bista estimated that he eventually lost about N1.6 billion after paying N90 million and several sums in dollars, including $100,000, $30,000 and $20,000.
He said he financed the payments with loans obtained from relatives and friends in Malaysia, believing the repeated delays were caused by logistical challenges rather than fraud.
“I kept giving him money because I thought he was facing logistics challenges. I never knew we were being scammed,” he said.
POLICE REACT
Reacting to the allegations, Anietie Iniedu, spokesperson of the Nigeria Police Force, told TheCable that the force was aware of the interview.
He said an officer attached to the complaint response unit (CRU) had contacted VeryDarkMan to obtain additional information that could aid an investigation into the claims.
According to Iniedu, the activist had yet to respond, adding that the police would treat any complaint formally reported to the CRU in line with its standard procedures.
