Tension in Osogbo as vendor who sells ‘cheap’ food items disappears with customers’ money

Concerns have spread among residents of Osogbo, Osun State, after a vendor reportedly disappeared after collecting advance payments from customers who ordered food items sold at unusually low prices.

According to a video posted by Osogbo Updates and widely circulated across social platforms, the business, located in the Odi-Olowo area of the Osun State capital, attracted residents with its low prices for food items including rice, cooking oil, spaghetti and semovita.

Customers were required to pay in advance and return about a week later to collect their food packages.

However, some customers who returned to the business premises on Monday morning to follow up on their orders reportedly found the shop closed and the operators nowhere to be found.

A video seen by PREMIUM TIMES showed a large crowd gathered around the shop area, with some customers expressing concern over money they had paid for food packages.

Adabanija Sulaiman (not a victim), a resident who spoke with PREMIUM TIMES, said the development had caused concern among customers, particularly those who paid large sums of money.

He said the affected customers are currently planning a protest to demand the recovery of their money.

According to Mr Sulaiman, the business attracted many customers because of the unusually low prices of the food items. He likened the business model to schemes in which operators persuade people to part with small amounts of money with promises of receiving larger returns.

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“It is like those people that will say you should come and invest with small money and get a large amount of money. They’re selling their food stuff at low prices, so, many people have paid for them to buy it at low prices and resell at the normal prices of those products.”

Mr Sulaiman stated that the customers had now lost their money after the operators disappeared. “Now they have scammed them and run away with their money.”

The sudden closure has raised questions about how the business operated and what happened to the money collected from customers.

As of the time of filing this report, the operators were reportedly unreachable, while the circumstances surrounding the closure remained unclear.

When contacted, the spokesperson for the Osun State Police Command, Abiodun Ojelabi, said the matter had not been reported to the command.

“We are not aware of such. There’s no report to that effect,” Mr Ojelabi said.