Apprentices swindle bosses 150 million naira in Lagos market

One of the best places to buy inexpensive bulk goods is Idumota Market, which is almost as old as the historic town of Eko. The market is great for buying a wide range of products, such as food, electronics, apparel, underwear, textiles, and so on.

The market is one of the most popular in Lagos and receives thousands of buyers and sellers from Mondays to Saturdays.

Billions of naira go down in transactions daily in the market, with many apprentices joining to learn the business of buying and selling to earn their means of sustenance and also breed the hope of becoming a boss of their own in the years to come.

While some apprentices have been loyal, respectful, and trustworthy, others have sent their bosses into the chasm of heavy debts through various sharp practices. In some instances, some business owners have passed away because they found it hard to believe the level of harm being done to their businesses by their apprentices who have won their trust.

It was a moment of sadness for a business owner (name withheld) in the ever-busy Idumota market, as one of his apprentices spent nearly 50 million naira of direct proceeds from the business on gambling on different international betting outlets.

The apprentice, Adisa Gabriel (not the real name), who is in his early 20s, was the manager and storekeeper to the business owner, who is into men’s wear business in one of the biggest markets in Nigeria and indeed Africa.

A source who is close to the matter told Afri Reporters that the young manager has been an addicted gambler for some time without the knowledge of his boss.

He explained that, being the manager, he has been secretly diverting part of the money made daily to a private account, which he has been using to fund his gambling addiction.

In another shocking case, one Hameed Oladimeji Olushola Shoremekun, who is an apprentice to a business owner, carted away goods worth 100 million naira.

In a flier shared online, the apprentice, who is currently at large, collected an undisclosed amount of money from the customers of his boss and also fled with loads of goods.

Whose fault: gambling, the quest to show off ill-gotten wealth by apprentices, or unconcerned bosses?

While police have commenced investigations on the two disturbing cases, the question raging through the minds of many is what could have pushed the apprentices to take the dishonoured path of wrongly taking what does not belong to them.

On one hand, the raging addiction to gambling raised its ugly head in the first case. A report says about 57.2% of school-age children in Nigeria were estimated to have gambled at least once in their lifetime, according to a 2019 paper on gambling in the country. In 2020, Nigeria’s sports betting industry passed $2 billion in size. Apart from huge amounts of money, some have also lost their lives to gambling.

In May 2023, a Nigerian student died by suicide after losing his and a friend’s school fees to gambling. Several social media influencers with millions of followers frequently promote online sports betting in the country, hence adding to the growing addiction among the younger populations, who are the main followers.

Apart from gambling, the internet is heavily saturated with the constant display of wealth by influencers, hence stimulating the will of many young Nigerians to want to have a taste. Popular in the mouths of many Nigerians is the slang ‘I will never be poor; stop playing.’ This was made popular by a social media luxury content creator, Ola of Lagos, who has large followers on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok. A peep into the comment sections of his luxurious advertisements will give you a hint of what some young ones think regarding big houses, the latest cars, and, in some cases, beautiful women.

On the side of the bosses, who are the victims, it is time to tighten the grip and go digital, says Alhaji Ibrahim Abdullah, who is also a business owner in the popular market.

He said, “While the blame is on the apprentices for being dishonest in their dealings with their bosses, I think their boss should share in the blame. Going digital is the best way to check this.

“I spent millions of naira to digitise my business to prevent leaks and potential theft. Yes, it may not be all perfect but I can’t tell you that it becomes very difficult to steal successfully. If you can manage to do so, it will not get up to one million before I will detect,” he said.