The Web of Criminality at Computer Village
Computer village which is located in the Ikeja area of Lagos is one of those places that are appropriately named: Like the Silicon Valley in the United States, it is Nigeria’s biggest ICT hub with sales, repair, and marketing of computers, mobile phones, software, and other electronic gadgets. According to Business Day, the market generates $2bn annually. It also contributes significantly to reducing youth unemployment and by extension poverty.
Computer village can be described as Nigeria’s precursor to other technological hubs. It’s a common saying that if you can’t find a gadget or software or mobile phone at Computer Village, you can’t find it anywhere else.
Despite this, the market is largely unstructured. Almost every inch of space in the market is used by gadget vendors and repairers and those who cater to the need and the teeming customers. There are about 3,000 shops there including representatives of major brands like Samsung, HP, Dell, Toshiba, Tecno, and Nokia including representatives of major brands like Samsung, HP, Dell, Toshiba, Tecno, and Nokia.
The average rent of a small shop there is N150,000. There are also those who are on the street and pay a levy to the market heads. Some even turn their cars into makeshift shops and display their gadgets in the booth.
Items sold in the market can best be categorized into four: New, Refurbished, Used, and Fake. New products are usually sold inside shops. Some sellers like Slot rent out spaces within their own outlets to other sellers after they have vetted their products.
Then there are those who deal in what is referred to as refurbished devices. These are devices that were returned to the manufacturers either as unsold or with defects and the defects have been fixed. These kinds of devices have a lower warranty than new ones and so the prices are lesser.
Used phones and laptops are quite common in Computer Village and their prices are cheaper than new and refurbished devices. The most common ones are Nigerian used devices which are cheaper than their UK and US counterparts. Then there are those that are fake which of course are not listed as one by the sellers. These sellers go to the extent of making it difficult for the average person to be able to tell whether the devices are fake or not.
Saheed Sanni who has a repair and sales shop at Computer Village believes most of the fake devices are sold by people who do business on the streets.
He told Neusroom: “Many people say the things sold at Computer Village are fake but that is not true. I have a small shop and I have been here for seven years. If I sell a fake product, the buyer knows where my shop is and can easily come back to return it. If you buy from someone on the street who does not have a shop or even a kiosk, you are taking a big risk because if the item is fake, you won’t see him in the same place if you return even in 10 minutes.”
The Standard Organisation of Nigeria claimed that 80 percent of phones and gadgets sold at Computer Village are fake although this was swiftly disputed by the umbrella body of shop owners in the place, Computer, and Allied Products Dealers Association of Nigeria (CAPDAN).
The sale of fake products however is not the only problem buyers encounter at Computer Village. Neusroom spoke with four people who have fallen victim to the web of criminality and fraud that is perpetuated in the market and their experience shows a deep-rooted problem that needs to be addressed.
Product exchange
One trick by fraudsters in Computer Village is to exchange the good a buyer has selected for another one usually at the point of payment. Neusroom spoke with Moyosore who claimed she bought a used mobile phone but was given another item without her knowledge.
“I am quite familiar with mobile phones so going to Computer Village to buy a mobile phone myself did not seem like a big deal. My brother warned me to be careful and advised me to buy from a shop. When I got there, however, I saw that someone was selling the phone I had come to buy. I examined the phone carefully and was satisfied with it. The price was way lower than what I expected but because I had checked it myself and was satisfied with it, I paid and the seller helped me wrap it in nylon. He did not issue a receipt because according to him, it was a mass sale. It wasn’t until I got home and unwrapped the package I realised that it was another phone that refused to turn on I had been given. How he exchanged it is still a mystery because I handled the phone the whole time until he asked me to drop it inside the wrapper and handed it to me.”
She said that she returned to the market immediately but the seller had left the spot and another person had occupied it.
Money return
Adewale Arogundade told Neusroom that in June 2020, he bought a Samsung phone that was very cheap but ended up losing his money.
“It was in the evening and I was returning from work. I was passing through Computer Village to buy toner for the office printer when this young man walked up to me and showed me several phones in a leather bag. I was suspicious because of the price but he told me the phone was in good condition. He wanted N70,000 but I offered to pay N50,000. After haggling back and forth, we ultimately settled at N60,000. I handed over the money and I collected the phone and we shook hands.
“Just as I was about to leave, he said he was not satisfied with the amount and was not even ready to sell again. He gave me my money and I handed back the phone, surprised but since I had my money back, it wasn’t a problem. When I checked to count the money to make sure it was complete even though the bundle still felt the same, I noticed that after the first five N1000 notes, the rest were brown paper cut into note sizes sandwiched between another N5,000. When I looked up, he was gone. I lost N50,000 in the blink of an eye.”
Fake shop
One advice people who go to Computer Village get is to go to a shop and buy from there as this guarantees the quality of the items. This is however not true in all cases. There have been reports of shop owners engaging in elaborate schemes to defraud customers.
Akinbami Ayodele told Neusroom that he was a victim of this scheme in 2017 when he went into a shop to buy a mobile phone.
“The transaction went smoothly. It was a used London phone and was still clean. The person who attended to me already told me there was a small crack on the screen. I had no problem with that since the phone was in good condition. After I made the payment, he asked me to wait and issued a receipt that I really did not care for but he insisted I have it as it would allow me to return the phone if I have issues with it.
“I was on the bus on my way home when I noticed that the phone’s sound was not coming up. Apart from the preinstalled applications, I also could not download new ones so I resolved to go back to the shop.
“When I got there, I noticed it was another person that was behind the counter. When I told them I wanted to return the phone because I just discovered some issues with it, I was told I did not buy the phone there. I insisted I did and even showed them the receipt and the man told me the receipt showed I was in the wrong shop and told me his shop name is different. The name on the receipt was ‘God Is Good Gadget’. I stepped out of the shop and saw that the name boldly displayed was completely different and the address in my receipt was fake. I felt like a fool and knew I had been played.
“I went to report at the Police Station in the market but the police failed to do anything since I could not show proof that I bought the phone from the shop.”
Strange objects
Some customers claim they have bought phones in Computer VIllage and swore that when they got home, they discovered other objects in the packages like a bar of soap, a roll of fufu, iron bar, etc. One Jeremiah Martin told Neusroom that he was convinced that black magic was involved as he could not fathom how a new phone inside a package would turn into a bar of soap.
“It was a new phone that I only brought out to confirm that it has no charging problem. Right in my presence, the phone was repackaged into the pack and handed over to me with a receipt. When I got home, I was shocked to find a thick stick cut into a phone size in the pack. I could not even return it because no one would believe me.”
Tomilola Oriyomi who said she worked at Computer Village for two years and left in 2014 before she got admission to the University noted that this issue was quite prevalent even among those who were supposed to be trusted vendors.
“My boss used to size up customers when they come to his shop. If he suspects the person is a JJC, he would try to play a fast one on them. If someone buys a used phone, he would ask the person to bring the phone to connect it to a charger just to let the person know the charging port is good. The customer is then distracted by someone else in the shop. In those few seconds, the phone will be exchanged for another one.”
Rasheed Olusoga who owns a shop at Computer Village told Neusroom that small businesses owners are the most affected by the criminal actions of others.
“It affects those of us who own small shops a lot. No random person just wants to walk into a shop again and buy a phone or lap[top especially used items. You have to rely on those who have bought something in the past to recommend you to other people. People prefer to go to Bigger shops like Slot to buy phones even if it is more expensive because they know they won’t get fake items or fufu. In my own case, the average buyer will not come to my shop.”
Neusroom visited the police station located inside Computer Village but the officer at the desk declined to speak other than saying the unit has been able to manage disputes between customers and shop owners well when called upon.
