Michael Arifade (not real name), a writer, and his fiancée have narrated how Deloan and 1Clickloan, two online quick loan outfits, sent defamatory messages to their phone contacts, labelling them rapists and murderers for defaulting on a loan repayment.

Arifade, who spoke to FIJ on behalf of the duo, said he and his fiancée were forced to take loans from both outfits because of a pressing issue.

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“I took N8,000 from 1Clickloan on May 29 because I had a pressing financial need. My loan was to be paid within seven days, which would end on June 3. However, they began to send defamatory messages about me to my contacts even before the deadline,” Arifade said.

“They accused me of being a pedophile and criminal. They also described me as a child molester and ritualist, adding that I was wanted by the police because I couldn’t pay their loan on time.”

Michael told FIJ that the outfits sent a graphic design of his fiancée’s obituary to her phone contacts via WhatsApp. He added that they also sent another design stating that said she was wanted by the police to her.

“My fiancée took N24,735 from Deloan app on May 30. She was to pay back on June 4. But the loan wasn’t even overdue when they started sending the embarrassing messages to her contacts on WhatsApp,” he said.

“They even threatened her that more defamatory messages would be sent to her contacts. In fact, they told her that they would continue to send different messages every 30 minutes to our contacts until the loan was paid.”

One of the messages sent to Oluseun read: “You have only until 12 noon to repay before this gets viral. There are only two options: either you pay now and we retract the messages then apologise to your contacts or we allow our system to keep sending the messages. Nothing can stop me from sending these messages, not even your mother. May God grant you the morale to face your contacts and more.”

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Arifade said the outfits did not eventually fulfill their promises of apologising and retracting the messages after the loans were paid.

“Another thing is that even after we eventually managed to make the repayments, they didn’t take down the message or apologise to our contacts as promised,” he said.

“I told MoneyHub I wouldn’t let them get away with the false allegations they’d forwarded to my contacts. They are loan sharks, but they claim to be human rights activists.”

An investigation by FIJ showed that both outfits are owned by a parent company called MoneyHub.

When FIJ contacted an agent of 1Clickloan, he hung up the call and barred our reporter from further reaching him, after she introduced herself.

Several phone calls were made to Deloan but they were not answered. A text message sent to them had not also been responded to at press time.