I used to doubt the existence of market broad daylight fraud (aka dagbo) till on the 31st march, as a matter of fact I used to think those that actually fall victim to such as big fools without brains.
On that fateful day, I was prepared for shopping so I headed to iweka electronics market. When I arrived there I met so many hustler (aka ndi oso afia) around, they would grab me by the hands trying to direct my attention to the various wares and articles they have, knowing them too well; I would give a deaf ear to whatever they are saying and try to let go of myself from their grip. I headed for the shop I had in mind to get me a pro-evolution soccer 2014. I was about entering the shop when a young boy of about ages 16-18yrs old; walked up to me; he wasn't looking like a hustler at all, infact he looked more of an "ajebutta". He pleaded for a minute of my time and told me he stays at asaba, he came down to onitsha to buy PC and game wares and he happened to had exhaust the cash he had on him and would like to sell off his belongings to raise cash for his T-fare and some other things he hadn't bought.
He sounded very convincing to me, when he flashed his two phones he wanted to sell; a blackberry bold 5 and an I-phone 4 and said I should pick any of them I was interested in, by this time myself was vibrating within me ( I don see mugu wen I go chop). I ushered him to a corner to avoid attracting the attention of the nearest hustler, I took the phones from him and checked to ensure he wasn't messing with me, and men the lil dude was for real!. I told him I was interested on the I-phone 4, he shrugged and said no problem, he was going to sell it for #55,000.
I shouted and told him no body in the market is gonna be willing to pay him at most #25,000 for it, immediately the look on his fresh aje face changed, he looked a bit moody and asked whether I was serious about what I just said, I couldn't help to start dancing azonto within me when I saw actually got him with that one.
I said sure! he could go try the hustler around and see what he's gonna come up with, with a disturbed look on his face he asked how much I had for it. This time I gathered all seriousness around, added to the one I had on and told the boy #15,000.
The boy was stunned, he felt like crying instantly and then pleaded I should buy it for the #25,000 I talked about initially. I told him that was all I had with me, he then latter insisted on #20,000; overjoyed I took out ma wallet counted out #20,000 and gave to him.
Immediately I handed him the money, two hustler who I never knew had been eaves dropping on our discussion walked in and told me in igbo to drop something or they are going to add #5,000 on what I was buying the phone for. As this was going on the boy handed me the envelope containing the phone, I quickly ran my fingers on the envelope to ensure the phone was there. I didn't want to bring it out in front of the two hustler to avoid them pouring sand into my garri. Still arguing with the two hustler, the boy took his leave. Myself was very happy because that's all I wanted that moment, for him to leave me with the two hustler before any drama might come up. When I noticed he was out of sight I got the two fools off my back, they said I was too smart and that I just had a lucky day. I smiled!, quickly I rushed out of there, stopped a taxi and headed for home.
On my way home I was feeling very happy and lucky, I decided to feel my new signing. I deeped my hands into the envelope, lo and behold I had a well shaped bar-soap in my hand, I couldn't help but throw back the bar-soap into the envelope hoping it might be a joke and that it might change back to the I-phone 4 it was meant to be.
I deeped my hands once more and brought it out! I couldn't stop my self from shouting cchheeeeeeiiiii!!!!!.
That was when it dawned on me that I had just been duped, it was as if a big curtain shading me was drawn unannounced. My hands were shaking, I was stunned, I couldn't speak. It took about 10min for me to realize I was still in a taxi and that there were people around asking me different question about why I shouted. My spinning head stopped for a while and I remembered the date to the following day (april 1st), then I had every reason to realize that, I was just served!!