An interview with Ideye Rachid - 29 years old water vendor
A paceful protest or a civil rebellion?
October 2020
vol. 4
HAVING WHITE FRIENDS MAKES YOU A SCAMMER
CECYLIA BUCZKO: How possible is SARS to stop your car when you're travelling?
IDEYE RACHID:
Mind you, is it enough reason for you to be arrested unlawfully if SARS sees you in a car driving, and they will take it for granted that you live beyond your means. Then they will harass you and extort money from you threatening you unless you pay. If not, they will arrest you as an internet scammer. We all young people pay the tribute of our lives for the statistics which claim that most of the young people in Nigeria are lazy, they don’t want to work and instead they want to get easy money to scam people. A government that criticises his youth and speaks badly of them, is that a good government? Nigeria youths are the hardest set of individuals. Even with the bad economic policies we still strive to be innovative and work hard to meet daily targets. We do all manner of menial jobs to survive.
Who are the Internet scammers?
They don’t do any regular work, just stay at home and spend all day talking with people online. They look for a person abroad whom they try to make friends with and then tight the bonds gradually. And later start asking for money at the excuses of travelling to Europe to work hard, the hospital treatment, paying the education fee, etc. And all of this is just a part of a fake life of a scammer, who thanks to money people sent him can afford to buy a good smartphone or laptop or even a car.
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| (Channels TV) |
Is owning an electronic device or a car an offence?
Not really but it is just enough to be arrested by SARS who just take it for sure that such a person is a fraudster. And you know, I have friends in Europe who I have known for quite a long time. So always when I am travelling I have to delete all the conversations with them. I just keep it in my mind and in my heart but deleting them always makes me sad. However if I have another alternative I would have used it other than deleting conversations with friends abroad. Even if they see the photo of a white man or woman in your phone, they would tag you a fraudster. It is that bad.
I assume your conversations are private. Aren't they?
Look, this is always bad when the SARS stop your car. They are armed, so you can’t object to giving them your smartphone if they demand this. You can’t refuse unless you want to be beaten or arrested or even killed. They check your conversations in all the social media, they read what you write to others. If they found any conversations with white people, any photos of them, they would arrest you on a charge of being a cyber-criminal even if none of the conversations is deceitful.
Is this just a way used by SARS to select the criminals in your country?
Do you think the real scammers don’t delete their conversations? They are even more careful. The way SARS treats us is unjust and brutal. I know there are many fraudsters in my country but I am not one of them, I am not a Yahoo-Boy(as famously called in Nigeria.) But I have to keep all the means of precaution if I want to be free and alive. It is so sad. How would you feel if you had to delete your conversations or photos with friends who are close to you?
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| (EPA) |
Part 2 - IT WAS A MODERN PROTEST WHICH STARTED IN SOCIAL MEDIA
Part 5 - HOW THE PEACEFUL PROTEST WAS HIJACKED BY HOODLUMS?
Part 6 - THE POWER OF PEOPLE IS STRONGER THAN THE PEOPLE IN POWER
Part 7 - OUR GOVERNMENT KILLS US – THE MASSACRE AT THE LEKKI TOLL GATE IN LAGOS
Part 8 - IT WAS NEVER MORE DANGEROUS TO BE A POLICEMAN HERE
Written by: Cecylia Buczko
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| Cecylia Buczko |
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