Tension has reportedly gripped parts of Osogbo, Osun State, following the alleged disappearance of a food vendor who collected advance payments from customers for food items sold at unusually low prices.
According to a video shared by Star Potter and circulated widely on social media, the business, located in the Odi-Olowo area of the state capital, attracted a large number of customers with discounted prices for items such as rice, cooking oil, spaghetti and semovita.
Customers were reportedly required to make payments upfront and return about a week later to pick up their food packages.
However, some customers who visited the premises on Monday morning to collect their orders were said to have met the shop locked, with the operators reportedly nowhere to be found.
A video obtained by Star Potter showed a large crowd gathered around the business premises, while some customers expressed concern over funds they had already paid.
A resident, Adabanija Sulaiman, who spoke with Star Potter but said he was not among the affected customers, said the development had caused considerable anxiety, particularly among those who paid substantial amounts.
He said some of the affected customers were considering staging a protest in an effort to recover their money.
Sulaiman attributed the popularity of the business to its unusually cheap prices, comparing the model to schemes where people are encouraged to make small investments with promises of greater returns.
He said, “It is like those people that will say you should come and invest with small money and get a large amount of money. They’re selling their food stuff at low prices, so many people have paid for them to buy it at low prices and resell at the normal prices of those products.”
He added that the customers were now worried after the operators allegedly disappeared with the money collected.
The sudden closure of the business has sparked questions about its operations and the whereabouts of the funds paid by customers.
As of the time of filing this report, the operators were reportedly unreachable, while the exact circumstances surrounding the closure remained unknown.
When contacted, the spokesperson for the Osun State Police Command, Abiodun Ojelabi, said the command had not received any complaint concerning the incident.
“We are not aware of such. There’s no report to that effect,” Ojelabi said.
