IPNEWS: The authoritative Independent Probe Newspaper has uncovered how several young Liberians are being dupped at the hands of some criminal gangs under the disguise of granting them scholarship for Australian.
One of those dupped by the criminal gang narrates how several of them in the multitudes to travel were excited to travel abroad in search of scholarship and are being made to pay between $300 and $3000 to secure their scholarship slot.
Jacob Doe (real name withheld) explained how some of his colleagues’ travel by air and road enduring four days of road trip to come to Nigeria where they are told it would be easier to secure the Austrian scholarship, however, they have been lured into a trafficking scheme.
Who are the victims?
Jacob Doe tells IPNEWS from an undisclosed location inside Nigeria that he and several others are tricked into believing that would be travelling to Australia for undergraduate studies by Phoebe Onogu, a Nigerian he had met on Facebook.
He narrates how Onogu had told them about the Australian scholarship because she had placed another Liberian whom he trusted as the middleman.
“The Liberian she put at the fore of the scholarship was why I gained interest. He was the one relating with me and I trusted him because he is from my country, even though he has betrayed me, I know he won’t do anything bad to me.” Jacob Doe stated.
Doe believes his Liberian brother meant well for him, he was clear about Onogu’s intention towards him, only that it cost him $400, four days of road trip through Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo, the Republic of Benin before bringing him to Nigeria. But that was not all, it also cost him dashed Australian dreams.
“I came to Nigeria because I was told I could use it as a getaway to study in Australia. She asked me to send the money and then sent me fake admission to deceive me,” Cooper said.
But funding his Australian dream and Nigerian trip didn’t come easy either. Back home, the only black African country never colonised, he worked as a money changer, dealing with the Liberian and the United States dollars. He combined that with plumbing.
Cooper told FIJ he balanced his occupation with being a freshman in Public Administration at the University of Liberia College. “I had just gained admission into the University of Liberia College to study public administration but I was hopeful and wanted more,” he shared.
Despite the deception from Onogu and everyone who had schemed to swindle him of his money, Doe still plans to school in Australia. He said, “If I go back to Liberia, I will try to see how I can leave the country again because I want to travel abroad.”
Jacob Doe blames this decision on the rapidly falling standard of education across Africa: “I want to go to another country because everyone is leaving Africa to study elsewhere. The education here is not up to standard, especially in my country where you have to pay money for everything, and as a student where will you be getting the money from?”
According to the United States’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), more citizens are migrating out of Liberian than entering it. It pegs the country’s net migration rate at -2.67 per 1,000 population. This implies that 2.67 people are leaving the country for every 1000 population.
The negative value also shows that more people are leaving rather than entering, which could lead to a population loss for the country through migration.
