Loan shark declares defaulters dead, distributes obituaries to relatives, friends

A micro loan company has been accused of declaring defaulters dead, designing and circulating the obituaries of such persons to family and friends.

A customer, Azuwuike Chinedu Achiever recently shared his experience with the loan company on social media.

He said he had defaulted in his repayment plan for five days and the next thing he saw was his obituary.

On a public group on Facebook, another customer of a loan app, Victoria Eyo Ekpo revealed she was also a victim and vowed not to repay the loan.

She said, “This is what Deloan (app) sent to me oooo. I will never pay. They called my mum and insulted her. May God help us.” (sic).

Ekpo added that she borrowed the sum of N15,000.

When PUNCH Online spoke with one of the contact persons of Deloans, who the Truecaller app identified as ‘Scammer,’ he denied ever doing that.

The contact person, who simply identified himself as Somto “How can I do something like that? Am I not a human being

Pressed further, he said he doesn’t have the authority to speak on the matter and that our reporter would need to speak to his bosses before abruptly ending the call.

Further calls to his line went unanswered.

Meanwhile, the Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, Babatunde Irukera, has said that the regulators in the financial system are collaborating to address what is fast becoming a dominant and abusive practice targeting some of the most vulnerable in the society.

Irukera said, “In November (2021), the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission hosted a meeting attended by the chief executive officer of the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission, and representatives of the National Information Technology Development Agency and the Central Bank of Nigeria; in leading an effort to address multiple potentially dubious conduct of certain money lenders, otherwise known as loan sharks.

“Continuing complaints about questionable repayment enforcement practices including public shaming and violations of privacy, arbitrary, unjust, unreasonable, or exploitative interest rates and or loan balances calculations, harassment, and failure of consumer feedback mechanisms among others have led to significant and understandable consumer aggravation and dissatisfaction.”

—Punchonline