The Dubai in Cote D’Ivoire: Scores of Ghanaians lured and trapped in a net called Qnet

The victims are varied. They include a police officer, a teacher, a former NABCO employee, and the reigning second runner-up of “Ghana’s Strongest” bodybuilding competition. But their aspirations, journeys and fates are similar. 

They were promised mouth-watering salaries in France and Dubai. They were asked to pay money they didn’t have. They were directed to go to Cote d’Ivoire for the final preparation for their journey. With borders closed due to Covid-19, they embarked on perilous journeys through unapproved routes. But they all ended up wasting away in Bondougou and Abidjan, some sending SOS calls to Ghana, while others engage in the criminality that landed them in the mess.

The Fourth Estate learns, through the eyes of some victims, of an illegal network that lures youths from across West Africa to Cote d’Ivoire in a massive scam and now reports.

When Richmond Odum arrived in Cote d’Ivoire, his intention was to spend two or three days processing his documents for his much-anticipated travel to Dubai.

He was full of expectations and made a mental note of how to celebrate an end to his hustles. His new elevation from a cleaner, whose salary could barely last for two weeks, to an employee of the global logistics firm, DHL, in Dubai, was a dream come true.

But he would be rudely awakened by the shocking realisation that Cote d’Ivoire was going to be his final destination. His new job, home, and the benefits he looked forward to would forever remain a distant, elusive dream.

He had been trapped in a web of deceit that had proven inescapable to some victims that had been caught in the same scam. And he would spend the next few weeks fighting for and plotting his escape.

While Richmond was still struggling to take in all that had happened to him, his supposed employers shocked him even more with another instruction.   He was asked to lure two more people to do the same job he was brought to Cote d’Ivoire to do–scamming. They claimed it was network marketing, but saying so would not entice people to pay so much to get to Cote d’Ivoire. So he was to lie to them the same way a trusted friend had lied to him. That was the only way, they told him, he would get the money they had taken from him back.

His two would-be victims were to pay the same amount Richmond had paid to arrive in  Cote d’Ivoire to enable him to recoup his money, they told him.

To help him execute this scandalous plan, the ring leaders of the network took Richmond through a “re-orientation” after they told him that there was nothing like jobs in Dubai or Paris as he had been promised.

Richmond said the “re-orientation” was the beginning of a battle with his conscience. He could not accept the new offer.

 “This place was not meant for me,” he told The Fourth Estate. He was not a scammer. He believed in honest labour. It was the reason he was dedicated to his job as a  cleaner until, one day, a seemingly more ambitious former colleague at the cleaning business messed him up.

Richmond was busy at work that fateful afternoon when he received a WhatsApp message from Ebenezer, a friend, and former colleague. Ebenezer used to work with Richmond in the same cleaning company in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

Screenshots of WhatsApp conversations Ebenezer had with Richmond, announcing the job opportunity.

Richmond, 28, a supervisor at the Cities Facilities Management Company had not heard from Ebenezer in a long while until that afternoon of June 14, 2021.

“There is an opportunity at the record-keeping department. It is Dubai,” the first message from Ebenezer said.

Richmond was promised a monthly salary of GH¢4,000, more than three times his GH¢1,200 monthly pay at the time. It had taken him five years into his job to reach that salary level. He had started as a cleaner and risen to a supervisor.

Working as a janitor was supposed to be a means to an end. So, while at it, Richmond completed a certificate course at the National Film and Television Institute (NAFTI) in 2017.  He tried to top this up with a diploma from the same institution. The tuition fee was  GH¢3,000, but he said he was only able to pay GH¢2,000. For falling short of GH¢1,000, his goal of furthering his education was cut short.

He channeled all his energy into his cleaning job and earned a promotion. That was when he met Ebenezer. The two bonded very well and trust was not a deficit in their friendship. It was the reason Richmond did not doubt the message he received from Ebenezer about the DHL job offer in Dubai.

His challenge was the fee of GH¢ 8,000, which, according to Ebenezer, he was supposed to pay DHL’s agents to facilitate his travel. It was more than six times his monthly salary. But the offer was too tempting to ignore.

“It is fees for processing of documents,” Ebenezer told him. The deadline for the payment was June 28, 2021.

Richmond’s fundraising abilities, which had failed him in trying to get a Diploma at NAFTI, were tested again.

“Even if it loans you can get it. So, make ward [wild], and let’s see what will happen,” Ebenezer urged.

On June 18, Richmond said he reported his fundraising progress to the supposed agent of the company Ebenezer had recommended to him.

“Good morning. Please I have been able to get GH¢4000 of the amount. Can you help me get the job?” Richmond said in his initial message to the supposed agent, who was said to be based in the Ivory Coast office of DHL.

The agent would not help Richmond with that amount of money, which was only half of the required “processing fee”.

Richmond said he did not give up. He reached out for assistance from his father, a cocoa farmer in the Eastern region of Ghana who managed to give him GH¢2,000, making a total of GH¢6000. He was still left with GH¢2000, but the agent was prepared to help him on grounds of compassion.

On June 19, 2021, at noon, Richmond bid goodbye to his work and began his journey from Accra to the western border town of Elubo, about 423 kilometres away. From there, he would figure out how to get to the Ivorian capital even though the borders were closed.

At 09:39 the following morning, Richmond arrived in Abidjan through cross-border transits, some illegal. At Abidjan, Richmond said he was met by a woman, only known as Priscilla, who ushered him to a temporary place of stay.

He said on arrival, his host demanded the GH¢6,000, which he paid without being given any receipt. She told him the name of the organisation hosting him was Qnet.

Qnet runs two offices for their operation. The one in Bondougou is painted in DHL colours. The other one in the Ivorian capital, Abidjan, is not painted in DHL colours, but Richmond said the staff wore DHL-branded attires. All other gadgets in the office, including screensavers of their computers, had the DHL logo and colours.

This was to lure many others into believing that the company was indeed DHL when they took photographs and sent them to their potential victims back in Ghana.

Richmond said there is a place in Cote d’Ivoire called Plateau, with high-rise buildings, suggestive of a well-developed European city.  The Qnet scammers in Abidjan often took photographs here, sometimes at the offices of DHL in order to lure their victims.

Like Richmond, many others fell for the scam and got trapped.