By - A food vendor in Osogbo’s Odi-Olowo area disappears after collecting advance payments for rice, cooking oil and spaghetti sold well under market rates
- Angry customers, many of them women, gather at the locked shop after discovering the owner has gone and the listed phone number is switched off
- One victim says she paid ₦810,000 for her order, while another says he lost ₦135,000 after convincing family members to patronise the vendor too
OSOGBO, Sept 28 (AfrikTimes) – A wave of anger swept through Osogbo’s Odi-Olowo area on Monday after a food items vendor who had drawn in customers with unusually cheap prices vanished, leaving a shop full of paid-for orders and a growing crowd with nowhere to take their complaints.
The vendor’s pitch had been simple and, in hindsight, too good to pass up. A 50kg bag of rice went for ₦27,000, a 25-litre container of cooking oil for ₦30,000, and a pack of spaghetti for ₦10,000, all priced well under what such items typically cost. Customers paid upfront and were told to return roughly a week later to collect their goods.
That arrangement held until word began circulating that the shop owner had fled. Within hours, a crowd had formed outside the now-locked premises.
Scenes of Grief and Disbelief Outside a Locked Shop
At the scene on Monday, the atmosphere was tense and, for many, tearful. Groups of women sat crying near the shopfront, others argued in clusters over what to do next, and a handful still held out hope that the vendor might resurface and reopen the business.
Among those affected was Mrs Gloria, who said she had handed over ₦810,000 for a combination of rice, cooking oil and other items, money she described as coming from a personal contribution scheme. She had planned to collect her order that morning, only to find the shop shut and calls to the vendor’s number going unanswered.
Another victim, Mr Tajudeen Adeyemi, said his losses were compounded by the fact that he had personally vouched for the vendor to people close to him. He said he paid ₦135,000 for five bags of rice and had brought in his sister and a neighbour as customers, believing the deal was genuine. He described the vendor’s disappearance as a calculated scheme rather than a simple business failure.
As of the time of filing, no police report or official response addressing the disappearance had been made public, and the whereabouts of the vendor remained unknown.
