Mama Dada, a middle-aged woman, is said to have set herself on fire in her rented apartment due to her inability to repay an N70,000 loan from a microfinance bank known as LAPO.
It was seen that the deceased were burned beyond recognition after the entire building in Abeokuta’s Oke-Keesi, Itoko area was razed. LAPO is well-known for lending money to traders and other small-business owners with specific repayment plans.
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According to an eyewitness, Bolanle Ajayi, a resident of the area, the woman committed suicide because she was unable to repay a loan she obtained from LAPO. “I was told that she obtained a loan worth N70,000,” she said.
A former member of the LAPO group, who identified herself simply as Mrs. Adeogun said an ‘unprecedented embarrassment’ will befall anyone who refuses to pay back the borrowed money from the bank at the set date.
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If you refuse to pay them back at the set date, you will be treated like trash, you will be embarrassed in a big way, in a manner that your children will forever be ashamed of. I know what I’m saying because I used to be a member. Before you will be given a reasonable amount of money, you must be a member and a committed member.
What they do is get you to join the group and start thrifting with them; the evidence of this thrift through your card will qualify you for a loan, which you must either pay back in full or in installments.
“However, whether in batches or all at once, there is always a set repayment date that you must meet, but if you default…you will live to blame yourself.”
Ade Babawale, secretary of the Community Development Association in the area, confirmed that the deceased owed the bank.
She owes the ‘Gbomu le lantern’ the sum of N70,000, and because she was unable to meet the payment, she sent her last born to buy fuel and also use style to discharge the small boy, and she locks herself up inside the room and wet everywhere with petrol, including herself, and set the whole place on fire,” he said.
Her body was taken to the state General Hospital in Ijaye, Abeokuta. When contacted, Abimbola Oyeyemi, the Police Public Relations Officer, stated that he had not been briefed on the incident.
On return Oyeyemi, on the other hand, promised to return after being briefed but had not done so as of the time of filing this report.
The issue of this cashless policy in Nigeria has brought tears to a lot of family members and the government is just yet to solicit for it to become easy for most citizens.
Source: Punch
