By Tanimu Muhammad
Abuja
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has through its Department of Outdoor Advertisement and Signages (DOAS), arrested about 7 suspected persons who indulge in illegal advertisement of employment and other networking agencies to defraud job seekers in the nation’s capital.
The Director of Outdoor Advertisement and Signage (DOAS), Dr. Babagana Adam while parading the syndicate Tuesday, at the Complex of the Abuja Enterprise Agency (AEA), in Abuja said the suspects are responsible for driving some business organization to illegally recruit victims for the purpose of defrauding them with the guise of given them jobs.
He added that they print job posters with inscriptions such as:
‘’Job in Supermarket, Male & Females, Educated & non Educated, monthly salary of N40,000 , staff bus & Accommodation’’ while asking interested applicants to call displaced certain phone numbers .
According to him: “What the cartel does is to paste illegal adverts, stickers on available space along FCT roads, bridges and infrastructures calling applicants to apply for the non existing jobs only to succeed in accommodating their victims into their fold/gangs to defraud, steal and sometimes or rape innocent residents across the territory.
“I am sure you can several of such illegal adverts along the streets of the territory, we have continuously informed the general public through Radio jingles, Television as well as the Newspapers warning residents to ignore such posters because they are not only illegal but an avenue to defraud job seekers’’.
He further stated that, some of the advert posters also carry messages such as, “you are hereby call to apply for ushering jobs in event centres stressing that interested persons should get their forms with N15,000 to qualify for the purported jobs only to be defrauded at the end.
Adam stressed that applicants should note that only DOAS is constitutionally empowered by the FCT Administration to take care of Signage and Advertisements even as he warned residents against fake advertorials in the territory.
The DOAS boss added that the cartel were tracked on Monday morning at Zone 6, Primary School opposite FCT Development Control by a combined team of DOAS Officers and Securities.
He said that all the arrested culprits will be handed over to the police for prosecution.
Meanwhile, one of the victims , simply identified as Obumnaeme said; “I saw an advert posted in one of the walls in Nyanya seeking for sales representative in a super market , I called the number and they asked me to come but on getting there, I called the number again and she sent someone to me, when the last came, she was not talking about the super market job again , she was talking about another business which am not aware of.
He continued: ” She said I need to pay fifteen thousand Naira, I told her, I don’t have the money here but I will send it to her when I get home, she then forwarded her account details to me to send the money when I got home. We were talking when they arrested us.”
Also, Miss Mary James told newsmen that , she called the displayed numbers in one of the posters and was asked to come forward but was arrested with the group yesterday morning.
However, Mr. Realistic Amadi , the leader of the group, who also spoke to newsmen, denied all allegations.
Amadi said, ‘’I am not aware of these job posters, all I do is to go out there to approach individuals to come and join in the sale of GNLD Pharmaceutical products with certain amount of interest after sales’’.