After completing his compulsory one-year National Youth Service (NYSC) scheme, Samuel Jesulokorede began his pursuit of landing a paid job. This led him to create an account on Indeed, a website for job-seekers and employers.
He stumbled upon a job opportunity at Alor Microfinance Bank one day and thought he had struck gold. However, his experiences from that moment revealed otherwise.
Jesulokorede had, in fact, struck a shiny stone and assumed it was gold.
Post advertising opening at Alor MFB on Indeed in 2022.
This marked his journey into the shady world of Helen Biyemi Iyamadiken. To Jesulokorede and other enthusiastic job seekers whom Iyamadiken interviewed, she was Aisha Adedeji, a moniker she had coined to conceal her identity.
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Iyamadiken put them on probation and gave Jesukorede and other job seekers a task to fulfil before giving them employment letters.
“She conducted a virtual interview and onboarding for all of us. Helen gave us a probation task, which required us to convince about 110 people to register on the bank’s website. To be selected, we had to make them activate their accounts with N500. Many of us completed the task and were given appointment letters,” Jesulokorede told FIJ on Wednesday.
He added that she told them that the bank had its headquarters in Anambra but was planning to expand to Lagos. They needed to fill up the roles in the Lagos branch, Iyamadiken had said. She told them that the branch was under construction and gave them an address in Ikeja, the capital of Lagos.
An Alor MFB probation letter.
They had begun to get suspicious of her when they asked her to give them some means of identification since they had been employed as the organisation’s staff. To cover her tracks, Iyamadiken drew more lies from her sleeve.
“She was showing videos of the construction of the place and told us they would send the company’s branded items and our ID cards to our homes. We did not receive anything when the time came, and we started getting suspicious,” Jesulokorede told FIJ.
“She never revealed her face to us whenever we were on video calls. So, one day, we asked her to show us her face, but she attempted to dodge our requests until we pressed further. When she showed her face, she was wearing contact lenses and putting on a hair bonnet.”
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It was from that moment their suspicions grew stronger. Then, they began to research Alor Microfinance Bank and Iyamadiken more. Their research led them to discover that Alor MFB was indeed a real company, but Aisha Adedeji (Iyamadiken) was a scam who had used them as pawns to swindle people.
“We had referred over 100 people, and they made payments of N500 on the website via Paystack. We contacted the chairman of Alor Bank in Anambra who made us realise that the bank had no plan of expanding to Lagos and that she had lied to us,” Jesulokorede narrated.
“I began surfing the internet for more details about the name she had introduced herself with. What struck me was that the name, Aisha Adedeji, was the name of a character in a book. I checked the name of the author and looked her up. Lo and behold, it was her (Iyamadiken’s) picture I saw.”
OLD HABITS DIE HARD
Iyamadiken is a testament to the maxim: old habits die hard.
Two years after Jesulokorede and other job seekers fell victim to her scam, Adeloye Omolaja, another university graduate, landed on her web.
In August, Omolaja saw a post advertising a job offer at Brisk Africa on X. The organisation needed field marketers, and seeing it was a role he could function in, he applied.
The post on X advertising an opening at Brisk Africa.
“I sent my CV to one of their HR officers called, Mr Prosper on August 9. We did a virtual interview on Google Meet with other people in attendance. Mr. Prosper explained what was required of us. We also had a physical meeting on August 12, and Helen Iymadiken was in attendance,” Omolaja told FIJ.
According to Omolaja, Iyamadiken told them that their job was to advertise Brisk Africa to unsuspecting customers interested in getting vehicles on hire purchase.
The letter of employment.
“She said there was no need for down payments, and all we needed to do was bring them to the office at Mushin, and the HR officers would collect their statements of accounts, electricity bills, driver’s licences and two passport photographs. She assured them they would get the vehicles in 8 days.
The Brisk Africa flyer informed customers there was no need for down payments.
“They were expected to pay for the cars in three years. We were expected to come to the office twice a week and immediately after signing in, our duty was to leave the premises and go out to advertise. She promised to pay us N20,000 in allowances every week, but she only paid us once.
“Some of my clients even paid her for tax ID and clearance letter, which she promised to send via emails but never did. Some clients I referred to the company made payments for cars but never received any,” he added.
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Another person who was employed as a field marketer for Brisk Africa told FIJ that he felt exploited.
“I felt exploited. This should not be. I was bringing in customers for the company without realising that the company was not registered and it was all a scam,” he said.
On Wednesday, FIJ discovered that Brisk Africa was not registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).
When FIJ sent Iyamadiken a message for comments on Tuesday, she said the claims against her were false.
The post How Helen Iyamadiken of Brisk Africa Used Unsuspecting Job Seekers as Pawns to Scam People appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.