COVID-19 was taking its toll on Dorcas Aboh-Uduh in early 2020 and she needed a new job. A private school teacher at the time, she met Emmanuel Onoja, an official of the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), who promised to get her a job for N300,000.
Aboh-Uduh said she met Onoja through a friend he was processing a job for at the time. Her friend had already paid Onoja N150,000, with the agreement that she would pay the balance once she received her appointment letter.
Onoja’s brother, who was a choir master at Aboh-Uduh’s friend’s church, had also told her that his brother had secured jobs for other, but despite all of this, the job deal fell through.
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“After a year, when it was so glaring that he was just pranking us, she (Aboh-Uduh’s friend) got the police involved. She pressured the younger brother. That one then informed Onoja that the police was about to be involved,” Aboh-Uduh recounted.
“He paid N100,000 and after some weeks, he sent the N50,000 balance. That was how her own story ended.”
At that time, March 2020, Aboh-Uduh had paid Onoja too. Considering her friend’s experience, she also demanded her refund. “I already knew he couldn’t get me any job,” she told FIJ.
Since then, Onoja has been very evasive.
Subsequently, Aboh-Uduh got a lawyer to serve Onoja a letter, but he only acted as though he received nothing. No calls or messages, just radio silence.
“I know I have spent so much. How much do they even pay private school teachers?” Aboh-Uduh added.
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The lawyer had even suggested getting a court order to freeze Onoja’s bank accounts, but the process would have been too expensive for a N300,000 debt.
When FIJ called Onoja on Tuesday, he said he sent the N300,000 to Ademu Emmanuel, someone in the NCoS headquarters. He also claimed he had sent a petition about the same issue.
“I was called upon and the man was also called upon, and an ultimatum of two months was given to the man. The man was saying that he was not feeling fine, that he collected money to treat himself,” Onoja said.
“They gave him the benefit of the doubt that if the money is not refunded, they would know what to do. Although, I have never told the lady (Aboh0-Uduh) anything because I don’t want to be giving her stories.”
The post NCoS Staff Emmanuel Onoja Yet to Refund Makurdi Teacher’s N300,000 After Failed Employment Scheme appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.