Open University Students Lose N20m To Fraudster

By Josephine Eyimofe and Kazeem Rahmon

Students of the National Open University, Osogbo study center have been allegedly duped of their school fees to the tune of N20 million by a couple operating café business center beside the school.

Osun Defender investigation gathered that about 300 students fell victim of the scam because they used the business center as a source of online platform payment of their school fees.

It was gathered that the affected students got the wind of the scam after the school authority pasted the list of debtors on the school noticed board.

One of the victims said after the list was pasted, the couple, while attempting to calm the frayed nerves of the angry students, promise to address the situation the following day only for the duo to disappear into thin air.

A source told the medium that the couple whose business name is known as RODEM came to the office in the middle of the night to park their computer system and other accessories.

Meanwhile, the angry students discovered that the wife who stayed majorly in the office had moved their belongings and headed for a newly completed house along fountain university road in the state capital.

However, the students were disappointed as the couple has left the house as well and no one in the community could ascertain their where about.

Checks further reviewed that the suspect had an elaborate wedding recently where a hip-hop star known as 9ice performed live and the couple also recently got a new car.

It was gathered that a divisional police officer [DPO], who is running a programme at the centre, is also among the victims of the scam.

According to findings, the wife who is a law graduate from the centre was said to have removed herself from the various NOUN platforms of which she was a member during and after her study days.

Findings shows that the matter has been incidented at the Oke-Baale Police station.

However, most of the affected students would still have to pay the require school fees before they could be allowed to complete their programmes as most of them could not write their last semester examinations.

Furthermore, it was learnt that most of the students who fell victim were those who do not pay their fee to the bank but choose to pay through the woman whom they trusted to help with their registration process.

Unfortunately, rather than paying the money deposited into her account she reportedly opted to borrow money from the school website into the online wallet of the affected students, thereby averting any form of suspicious from her victims.