Kunle Kayode (not real name), an Ondo State resident, has accused Akinlabi Ogunmakinwa, a travel agent, of failing to deliver his Canadian visa or refund his N550,000 payment since 2024.
Kayode began the visa application process with Ogunmakinwa in April 2024. This was after Kayode’s brother introduced him to the travel agent to help process a visitor’s visa to Canada.
“I told him I had previously tried applying for a visa to the U.S, Japan, and the U.K., but got denied. I did not want to waste my money again,” Kayode told FIJ.
“He said I was going to pay him N1.76 million for the process. I negotiated N1.7 million. He said I needed to deposit some money so that the process could begin.”
Kayode made an initial deposit of N200,000, and subsequently made deposits of N100,000 three times and N50,000 once. But since April, when he completed his biometrics, there has been no visible progress on his application.
Kayode told FIJ that he had made several attempts to follow up on the application process since then.
“I kept asking him to show me the status of my application process. My brother even called him several times, but he rarely answered. When he did, he always said there was no problem,” Kayode said.
The feedback to his follow-up attempts did not come until he issued a threat. On October 17, after the victim threatened to expose Ogunmakinwa on social media, the agent responded, stating that he needed to conduct a tracking record on Kayode’s account.
But Kayode was no longer interested. When Kayode said this, the travel agent promised to refund his money and even requested his account details.
Ogunmakinwa told Kayode, “Oga send your account number by Tuesday; I will credit you.” The agent told Kayode he was in Kenya and would refund the money by the following week.
As of press time, it has been two weeks since Ogunmakinwa promised a refund. Kayode has got neither his visa nor his money.
On Monday, FIJ called Ogunmakinwa to know the status of Kayode’s application, but he did not answer the call. FIJ also sent him messages. As of press time, none of those messages had been responded to.
Source: FIj
