A mother of two is under
investigation by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps for her
role in a N120 million racket operation that charged people money for
jobs in paramilitary services.
Jennifer Osuagwu, 26, of Udi local government area, Enugu, was
arrested by the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps in Owerri, her
base from where she offered more than 50 people jobs in Civil Defence,
Prisons, Immigrations and Customs.
Seized documents listing names of clients indicates she charged as
much as N50,000 for graduate jobs, N15,000 for cleaning jobs and N20,000
for drivers.
They also indicate she listed her clients as candidates of
legislators and newspaper editors to improve their chances of getting
jobs, but it is not certain how many were successfully employed.
NSCDC, which paraded the suspect Thursday in Abuja, said Osuagwu was
one of many self-appointed agents swindling citizens in the guise of
getting them job placements in non-existent recruitments into
paramilitary services.
NSCDC’s national Public Relations Officer Emmanuel Okeh said most
impersonators collecting money from job seekers “are in no way related
to the corps, are not employees of the corps and have never been in the
corps.”
Okeh warned the public to be wary of persons offering them spots in
recruitment into Civil Defence for a fee, adding that the corps was
dealing with reports of employment scams.
Up to 15 other people have recently been prosecuted, imprisoned or facing prosecution for similar employment scams, Okeh added.
Operations all round
Preliminary investigations indicated that Osuagwu worked with a woman
named as Mrs Obasi, who recruited her from a cybercafé and who is yet
to be arrested and questioned.
She told journalists that the client list belonged to Mrs Obasi, who paid her up to N4,000 for every N10,000 charged to clients.
She said they both took to scams because they were unemployed.
Their first scam was to secure a cleaning job in Bayelsa for a woman
at the construction firm RCC, where she claimed her husband Paul
Ibeawuchi Osuagwu, was employed.
She added her husband has since left Bayelsa for Abuja, though she doesn’t know his whereabouts.
