- Safiu Kehinde
A Lagos-based journalist, Segun O’law, has recounted his ordeal at the popular phone and laptop gadgets market, Computer Village, as he alleged being defrauded with a fake mobile phone.
O’law, in a video shared on his Instagram handle on Friday, narrated how had last month visited the market to purchase a new phone in a swap deal.
The Objectiv Media publisher said he was directed to a store identified as BuyMe where he bargained with the owner for the swap of his Iphone 15 Pro Max for a brand new Iphone 16 Plus.
While claiming to have noticed some defects unusual of a brand-new phone, O’law proceeded with the swap, laying an additional N550,000 for the phone.
“I decided to buy the one that has SIM because the last 16 Pro Max I decided to swap with was a locked phone, e-SIM only.
“They introduced me to this shop. Indeed, they brought this phone from carton- very clean and new.
“But as they were removing it, na the nylon first make me suspect say this nylon wey dey commot from the screen be like the one wey be say na our brothers put am.
“It looks neat but doesn’t look that factory neat. The second thing I would have suspected was when I checked the charging profile.
“I only know how to check the surface thing. I didn’t know how to check the board whether it is as claimed from factory, whether the battery is as new from factory or copied.
“I learnt all of these things after that my experience buying IPhone 16 Plus from this man.” He said.
The journalist further recalled complaining to the store owner about the hotness of the phone while transferring files from the old phone to the new one.
“Another inkling I should have been warried about was when they were transferring from my IPhone 15 Pro Max to the 16 Plus, it was so hot that when I complained, they said it is normal.
“‘A phone that is receiving heavy files from your phone since over 30 minutes, do you expect it to be cold?’
“I said warm is understandable but hot? They said don’t worry it will be back to normal. You know they have this way of justifying what you are complaining against.
“They took my very clean IPhone 15 Pro Max and I added N550,000.” O’law said.
Days after the purchase, the journalist claimed the phone abruptly went off prompting him to return to Computer Village.
“The next thing I noticed is that the battery doesn’t really last. About two weeks after using the phone, it just went off. After a while, it came up again.
“I was reading a mail and wanted to reply, and it went off again and that was the end.
“I left it for a while again; it never came up.
“The next day I took it back to the man, He man said when something like that happens, you will call engineer. I said no.
“A new phone that I just brought not up to a month, there should be a warranty on the phone. Can you let us look for a way to send it to Apple?
“He said ‘no you don’t have to be doing that. When something like this happens, it is not a big issue that you have to take back to the company. It is something you just have to call engineer.’
“He called his engineer and said follow him talk.
“I said follow who talk? I brought phone from you, and you said I should talk to your engineer?” O’law said.
He would discover that the phone was fake after paying additional N100,000 for the repair.
“Long and short, the engineer told me he will replace one IC. He first collected N100,000 because I needed to get back to work. There are jobs I’m working on.
“I was desperate and had to pay the engineer that just do this thing and let me get out.
“Immediately he opened of, he didn’t want me to see the phone initially. But on seeing the panel and the battery, you will know this is not a new phone. They put the panel together.
“At that moment I was no longer interested in that phone. I just wanted to repair and return it.” He said.
While successfully swapping the phone for an IPhone 17 Pro Max with another dealer, reselling the fake phone however proved difficult.
“We swapped the phone and I added money to it to take 17 Pro Max from the new guy who assisted me to swap the phone.
“The next day, he also wanted to quickly help me sell it out so that I could move on with another 17 Pro Max.
“He however called me and said that phone we repaired yesterday failed to come on again. We went back to the engineer.
“This time, the engineer now revealed that actually what he did was to change one thing that he has to properly go and change the complete screen.
“I had to pay another N100,000, that is N200,000 just to repair a phone in less than two weeks that I used the phone.
“After we changed the screen, we now started look for how to quickly sell it out. That was when it became clear that I bought a fake phone because everybody who saw the phone said the last price they can buy it is N500,000.
“The person now told me he can’t take the phone again that I should bring back his own phone or pay the full money.
“I had already paid the swapping balance but the phone, he can’t accept it again and now have to pay fully for the 17 Pro Max.” He said.
O’law disclosed meeting with the seller of the fake phone in demand for N150,000 out of the remaining N300,000 left for him to balance the other dealer who sold the new IPhone 17 Pro Max to him.
The fake phone seller, according to him, refused to make the half payment which prompted journalist to call him out in the video.
NPO Reports contacted the store owner who identified himself as Mr. Charles.
Speaking with our correspondent in a telephone conversation on Saturday, Charles confirmed selling the IPhone 16 Plus to O’law which he claimed must have developed fault due to overcharging or contact with water.
He, however faulted the journalist’s swapping of the phone with another dealer without coming back to him after the engineer fixed the phone.
Chucks claimed he gave O’law N50,000 to fix the phone after which he came back to demand for the half payment of the money left for him to balance the cost of the new IPhone 17 Pro Max.
“After the phone went blank and he called me, that was when started getting the whole information, I said I sent you to somebody to fix your phone and you did not come back to me.
“You went to go and switch your phone to 17 Pro Max. Now you are telling me that because it had issues.
“I gave him N50,000. Of course we did not make N50,000 from the phone but I said take just for us to keep our relationship in the business.
“I gave it to the guy that fixed the phone.
“His anger now is that the guy that sold that phone for him charged him excessively. He was looking at getting much money from selling this phone. But it is not enough for him to offset the other guy’s bill.
“He came to me and said look, this guy that sold this new phone to him is still disturbing him inside the market and he doesn’t have much to give him.
“I said what do you want me to do? He said I should give him more money. According to him, he said he is going to give the guy N300,000 more that I should bring additional N150,000.
“I told him I don’t have. Even the one I did, nobody does that in the market. I don’t produce. I go to market and buy from Europe.” He said.
Chucks alleged being threatened by the journalist while accusing him of formulating the story.
He further dismissed claim of the phone being fake, stressing that the battery might have been spoilt by contact with water or overcharging.
“He said if I fail to give him N150,000, he is going to castigate my company name and myself. He started sending me all sort of different messages.
“I just ignore. He formulated all these stories. They are cooked stories just to attract whoever that have interest and want to listen.
“Do you know that the same phone he complained about, somebody else is now using it with no complain.
“There is nothing like panel issue. He just formulated that story. Somebody brought that phone and he is still using it till today.
“Even if he has such issues, we have a police post inside Computer Village or he go to Area F that is close to tender the case.
“They will invite me and I will explain my part while he also explains his part.” He said.
Effort to reach out to O’law to confirm the store owner’s claims proved abortive as his phone was switched as at the time of filing this report.