Published 17th Dec, 2022

By Sodeeq Atanda

Elsie Alonge Olufunmilayo, a nurse resident in Ekiti State, has explained how Choice Gabriel, a businesswoman who runs a business called The Choice Collectibles, blacklisted her phone line after she paid N33,000 for a pair of shoes and a handbag to be delivered to her in Ado-Ekiti.

Olufunmilayo narrated the incident to FIJ on Saturday via a phone call. She stated that she saw some beautiful shoes posted by Gabriel on Facebook marketplace, a free platform for commercial dealings, and contacted her on how to buy a pair of the shoes.

She added that she couldn’t bargain the price because Gabriel insisted it was not negotiable.

After agreeing on the delivery charges, Gabriel provided a Stanbic IBTC bank account number for the payment of N33,000.

“I met Choice Gabriel on Facebook marketplace, where she had posted some shoes using her business name, ‘Choice Collectibles’. One of the shoe products caught my fancy and I contacted her for a purchase,” Olufunmilayo told FIJ.

The shoes from Choice Collectibles Olufunmilayo paid for — The shoes Olufunmilayo paid for

“She told me the price was N30,000 and it was fixed. I then asked her to provide me her account for payment.

“I told her I had a pair of flip-flops with another vendor, Ashiat Adebisi, and would like all the products to be sent together. We agreed that Adebisi would send the flip-flops to her in Osogbo.

“We later agreed on the delivery cost to be N3,000. Based on this, I transferred N33,000 to Gabriel on Wednesday and she acknowledged the payment.”

The transfer receipt to Choice collectibles — The transfer receipt

“According to our agreement,” she said, “the delivery date was Friday, December 16. As if she wanted to pull a fast one on me, I started having difficulty communicating with her on Thursday.

“The second vendor told me she was also experiencing a communication issue with her. We later discovered she had blacklisted our phone numbers. She did not stop at that; she blocked me on her social media accounts and deleted our chats on Facebook Messenger.”

Some of the WhatsApp chats between choice collectibles and the customer — Some of their WhatsApp chats

“This turn of events makes me think she has been defrauding people. I have cried many times for falling into her hands.”

When FIJ contacted Gabriel via WhatsApp on Saturday, she said “I blocked her when she started insulting me.”

On what led to the insults, Gabriel refused to say anything. She also refused to tell FIJ when the goods would be delivered to Olufunmilayo.

FIJ learnt that Gabriel’s business name was registered with the Small and Media Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria, an agency of the Federal Government created to cater to the development of SMEs in Nigeria, and her Facebook page had only 127 followers at press time.

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