Good day everyone, I will be using this thread to carefully narrate my 30 days sojourn from Cotonou to the city of Dubai to enable those that are yet to make the trip or are already on their way to learn a lot from my terrible experience and the breakthrough of overcoming all odds to finally travel into Dubai.

During my write-up my audience will know all the secrets surrounding the journey and the way agents frustrated alot of Nigerians who travelled through same road. It is a true life experience filled with tears, frustrations and a bit of happiness sandwiched in between. Let me not bore you with long talks just relax as I take you on a journey I kicked off from Benin city, Nigeria on the 12th of April 2021 that culminated into a 30 days trip.

P.s: kindly note that during the course of my experience in Cotonou there are some discussion I won't be able to dwell much on due to violating any of the nairaland rules, and also mind some of the typographical errors and just decode the message am giving out.

No p man, we dey here for you...

After the struggles and hustles in Nigeria and the way the economic situation is deteriorating in the country I decided to find a way to hustle myself out of the country to seek greener pastures. I have tried processing some Schengen countries visa which yielded nothing I decided to apply for a 90 days tourist visa to Dubai.
During the process of making enquiries for the application of the visa, I was getting exhorbitant rate from agents who wanted to help in processing the visa, what surprised me most to my jaw was when an agent In Dubai told me to pay 600,000naira for a three month visa. So I decided to go online to source for agents who will do the job for me with a reasonable fee. After about three days searching the internet, I finally came across a guy from Uganda who did the three months visa for a fee not up to 150k, infact I was amazed when he told me the amount that I should transfer to him because I have never heard of such amount before, so I thought maybe this was another scammer in disguise. But after much deliberation I decided to give it a try by risking it and behold after a space of three days the visa came out with the insurance. After doing my due diligence and verifying the visa online by confirming the geniunity of the visa, I discovered that the visa was a confirmed 90 days visa. Infact I was really amazed that if someone from Uganda that I haven't met physically can do a visa for me at such amount there are still sincere people in Africa unlike some of our brothers that were calling exhorbitant fees just for a three month Dubai visa.

To be continued

Well, since me and my pastor are having a serious quarrel, and he decided to suspend me, I will spend some quality time in this thread...


Please continue Op.

After getting the visa towards the first or second week of March 2021 I started making preparations for my trip with a tight budget of about 650k to complete the entire process with the hope that the ongoing flight suspension imposed by Emirate airlines for Nigerian passengers would be lifted before the month of March runs out so that I can go ahead and buy my ticket and fly out. I started hoping and believing for the flight to be lifted and before I knew hoping from days turned into weeks, weeks into month and my visa validity was running out as the day was going by. My frustrations with the flight ban made me turn to be among the Twitter warriors who started tweeting the Minister of Aviation to #openflight between the two countries but our effort for weeks on twitter yielded nothing, it was just like pouring water into a basket. That was the time I decided to venture into Cotonou to avoid my visa getting expired. And here is where my terrible experience started cooking out.

Ok

Please am not a visa agent neither am I asking anybody to contact me for a visa package. Every info am giving out here on this thread am giving out for free.
Am doing this just to help innocent people about venturing through the Cotonou route to learn from my story and avoid making the mistake I made. It is a pity that the country has been so adulterated that before one start a thread on nairaland you are been tag a scammer.

EndNigeriaNoow:
see scam format. u want people to pay u 150k for visa

Following

Lizard like u see your life

EndNigeriaNoow:
see scam format. u want people to pay u 150k for visa

After concluding plans for my proposed trip to Cotonou, I saw a video on YouTube by one YouTuber based in Dubai who I follows up with update on living in Dubai. During one of his regular update he disclosed that he had someone residing in Lagos that could cross passengers successfully through Cotonou to Dubai without much hassle. So after watching the short video I contacted this YouTuber through his WhatsApp line and he disclosed the process involved and the contact of the person that I will meet in Lagos who will take me to Cotonou and also board me successfully at the Cotonou airport, infact this is where my nightmare started setting in.
I contacted the agent immediately on his phone line and he told me exactly same thing the YouTuber told me and I was more convinced. The following day I made all payment pertaining to the logistics to the said agent and proceeded to booking my flight from Nigeria.
During the flight booking process through Ethiopia airlines, (because the only flight flying from cotonou to Dubai is only Ethiopia and Turkish Airlines which makes flight there very expensive) I was able to get a cheap ticket when converted to naira at about 332k, so I immediately called the Lagos Ethiopia office to make payment for the booking only to be told by the customer agent that the amount I will be paying for the flight is not same amount stated on the booking but 424k due to the fact that I am not travelling with Ethiopia from Nigeria and In circumstances as such I will have to pay some additional charges which culminated to the 424k.
After the discussion with the Ethiopian agent I decided to call the Agent in Lagos abou the present situation and he told me that he can get a cheaper ticket for me at the rate of 354k by buying the ticket directly in Cotonou. So I decided to forward him the money for the ticket, which later led to the biggest mistake I ever made that led me spending over 29 days in the city of Cotonou frustrated and depressed.


To be continued...

Derende:
After concluding plans for my proposed trip to Cotonou, I saw a video on YouTube by one YouTuber based in Dubai who I follows up with update on living in Dubai. During one of his regular update he disclosed that he had someone residing in Lagos that could cross passengers successfully through Cotonou to Dubai without much hassle. So after watching the short video I contacted this YouTuber through his WhatsApp line and he disclosed the process involved and the contact of the person that I will meet in Lagos who will take me to Cotonou and also board me successfully at the Cotonou airport, infact this is where my nightmare started setting in.
I contacted the agent immediately on his phone line and he told me exactly same thing the YouTuber told me and I was more convinced. The following day I made all payment pertaining to the logistics to the said agent and proceeded to booking my flight from Nigeria.
During the flight booking process through Ethiopia airlines, (because the only flight flying from cotonou to Dubai is only Ethiopia and Turkish Airlines which makes flight there very expensive) I was able to get a cheap ticket when converted to naira at about 332k, so I immediately called the Lagos Ethiopia office to make payment for the booking only to be told by the customer agent that the amount I will be paying for the flight is not same amount stated on the booking but 424k due to the fact that I am not travelling with Ethiopia from Nigeria and In circumstances as such I will have to pay some additional charges which culminated to the 424k.
After the discussion with the Ethiopian agent I decided to call the Agent in Lagos abou the present situation and he told me that he can get a cheaper ticket for me at the rate of 354k by buying the ticket directly in Cotonou. So I decided to forward him the money for the ticket, which later led to the biggest mistake I ever made that led me spending over 29 days in the city of Cotonou frustrated and depressed.


To be continued...

You for just pay the 424k.. and all these stories could have been avoided.

Fire on man the matter long but no mind those ones wey sey you be scammer, there's always a lesson to learn.

On Friday the 12th of March, the agent called me that I will be proceeding to Cotonou on Monday the 15th of March been the fact that my flight has been confirmed for Wednesday that week. So I asked him to send me the flight ticket to enable me print the flight ticket before travelling that Monday. But he told me that I will pick up the flight ticket immediately I get to Cotonou with my international passport I sent to him earlier. So on Monday the 12th of MArch I left Benin city for Lagos as early as 5:30am in the morning. I arrived Lagos around 12:15pm at berger and immediately took a bus going to Sango at the Toll gate for 500 NGN. When I got to the toll gate, I took a bike from there to Idiroko park from where I boarded a taxi to Idiroko( border between Nigerian and Benin Republic) for 1000 NGN. Throughout the journey I was in constant communication with the agent. I finally arrived idiroko around 4:30pm same day, after crossing the border I called my agent to notify him that I have arrived Republic of Benin only for him to tell me that I should wait for the driver that will pick me up from there to Cotonou. He gave me a Nigerian lady contact who he was sending to me to aid in the process of boarding to Dubai.
I finally got in touch with the said lady after about three hours of waiting at the Benin Border after which the lady asked me to take a taxi from the border to cotonou which was about an hour and twenty minutes journey. I arrived cotonou around 11:15pm that night and was received by the said lady who took me to a hotel where I will be staying for the two days before flying. Immediately we got to the hotel I called the agent for my passport and the flight ticket and he told me to ask the lady to give them to me. I asked the lady only to be given my international passport without a flight ticket, when I tried enquiring from her for the ticket, she told me that the ticket is not ready that I will get it tomorrow morning when going for my covid test, at this point I was already tense and was already sensing a game of conspiracy

Nicoswit
Hadampson
Niklausefred
Abeg tag the rest
Welcome back, its been long

Richdee1:
Nicoswit
Hadampson
Niklausefred
Abeg tag the rest
Welcome back, its been long

Yeah bruh
I have been away for a very long while too. Good to be back

Jaycew ( how's Poland treating you)
Subomi007
lamboladee
SaintHillary
Vhuqnl
Joohan
Paccus
Richdee1
ichbinbrait
Canih28
olioxx
Savagethe21st
aziza45442
2Lynx
NoFab123

After my encounter with the lady I retired to my hotel room to ruminate my head over the incident. I just couldn't sleep all through the night cos my instinct was signalling me that am in for a long stay in Cotonou.
The next morning, I woke up after managing to have a nap for about an hour and decided to call the lady about the time I should get set for the covid test. After about six hours of waiting for the lady outside my hotel, she came around and told me that I won't be able to do the covid that day again, that my ticket is not yet ready and I will have to wait for Saturday to fly. I was really mad at this point because the perishable food items and dry fish I bought over 100k from Nigeria was at the verge of getting spoilt which I quickly called my agent to intimate him about the recent developments. During the call with my agent and verbal threat I gave him, he started telling me that I should be patient with the lady, that by Saturday I will fly, that for the flight issue he forgot to tell me that the ticket they wanted to procure for me was a backyard ticket otherwise called a runz ticket. Infact over my years that I have been born I have never heard of a ticket called a runz ticket, it was in Cotonou I heard about a runz ticket. As for the foodstuff I bought he advised me to be sun drying the items pending when I travel on Saturday. I then asked him who will be responsible for the hotel bills and my upkeep during the remaining few days I will be spending because the two days I paid for was already running out, which he didn't give any positive answer to.
Fast forward to the following day, this lady still told me that no show for the covid test, that I will be going for the test on Thursday due to my flight date on Saturday, I had to quickly use my initiative to check out from the 13,000xof per night hotel I paid for and relocated to a bit moderate one for 9000xof around the vicinity .
Finally on Thursday morning, the lady came with other Nigerian passengers he brought from Lagos and told me that I should bring money for the covid which she said was 78,000xof so that she can go book an appointment for me. I counted the money for the test and gave it to her and she asked me and the other six passengers comprising of females to wait for her at a bureau de change shop close to my hotel that she will ring us up to come to the centre when she is done with the booking. It was at the shop that I started seeing other Nigerian who where in the same or worst situation we where who came through same lady but different agents. After hearing their various sordid tales on how some have spent close to two weeks, I then knew that I was in for a long thing as D'banj will say. At this point my family at home who felt that by now I would have been in Dubai were deeply worried about my safety.
After waiting with other passengers at the shop till almost evening of the said day, the lady finally called and said the covid will be done tomorrow Friday.
On Friday the following day we all went around 10am in the morning to the covid centre, and when we were inside the building I quickly ask one of the officials at the centre to help me with my receipt that was used in booking for the test, that I wrongly misplaced it when coming, the lady printed another receipt for me and that was when I discovered that the lady didn't pay for the instant covid test of 76000xof, but paid for the normal test that takes two days to come out which was 51,000xof. I couldn't believe this woman could collect 28,000xof extra from almost 20 Nigerians that were in the centre with me. I quickly kept the receipt in my purse and proceeded to carry out the test. Within less than an hour we were done with the test and we proceeded to our various hotels to wait for the test.

The following day Saturday morning which was the proposed date of my flight, I and other Nigerians tracked the lady to her hotel and asked her when our ticket will be out due to the fact that our results from the covid test was still yet to be out. She told us to be patient that we will all be travelling by 12 midnight through Turkish Airlines that his ticketer who resides in America has assured her that tickets will be out before 2pm in the afternoon. Some of the Nigerian with us were a bit relieved with that news, but I as a person have already lost hope in what she was saying due to my type of person.
The 2pm finally came, we called her and she told us that she is still expecting the tickets, and she also sent us the voice note and WhatsApp messages she and the ticketer have had concerning the ticket delay.
My people we waited till almost 8pm , it was still same story that ticket will come out and we should exercise a bit of patience. During this process I quickly went through the Cotonou covid website to check the test result and I saw that the result was out and it was Negative. At this point I became more depressed due to the fact that if I don't travel today with this covid test result automatically I this covid money is gone and I will have to do another test with another money and hotel bills was already piling up and the items I bought from Nigeria was already getting spoilt. I went back to my room and really wept, because at this point it has already dawned one that my agent and the lady were out to frustrate us here in cotonou.
Immediately I contacted the YouTuber whom I got the contact of the agent from and explained the ordeal I was passing through in Cotonou through the Agent he referred me to only for the man to tell me that the issue is not his business, that he only told me to pay the guy to take me to Cotonou and board and not in anyway to give him my ticket money to book flight for me.
After our conversation, I discovered that the YouTuber was right, after all he only told me the guy will only take me to Cotonou and board me, so I decided to stop bothering the lady and decided to face the said agent, after all I never had any deal with the lady but the agent whom I gave money to.
My family started threatening him on phone to refund the ticket money or else he finds himself in a situation he won't love. After series of threat from me and my family, this man finally forwarded me the 354k ticket money back to my account, at this point I was already spending close to two weeks in Cotonou, covid money gone, and hotel and upkeep expenses was piling up. At this point my hotel bill was already shooting to 196,000xof exclusive of feeding and upkeep that I spent an average of 2000xof daily. Infact I was dying inside and I didnt know what to do again.
With the 354k ticket money refunded, I was able to add extra money with the refunded amount to buy another confirmed ticket by myself in Cotonou with Ethiopia airline. I had to book for two weeks ahead to be able to get one that is still less expensive.

To be continued

Dear Derende,


Thanks for this, but please, try they drop the update fast as e dey hot.

The suspense too much.

I will try as much as possible to be dropping update as possible. Update is a bit slow due to the fact that am putting in finishing touch to flight schedule for Tomorrow by 1:45pm

PlayMaker14:
Dear Derende,


Thanks for this, but please, try they drop the update fast as e dey hot.

The suspense too much.

After finally booking and making payment for my flight, I started raising cash from my relatives in NIgeria to sort out my Bta and hotel bills that has been piling up until a terrible news occurred on Wednesday the 5th of May 2021.

I was relaxing with some of my Nigerian friends outside the balcony of my hotel enjoying the cool evening breeze when a lady who travelled that week through Turkish air has been deported back from Dubai . Infact that news made me have instant diarrhoea, that I rushed first of all to visit the toilet. After my few sordid moment from the toilet to hear what really transpired at the Dubai airport that led to her deportation with alot others back to Cotonou, it was gathered that the issue was in respect of the entry stamp on her passport in Benin Republic through Idiroko border post that was dated and signed with a pen that led to the deportation including others.
Immediately the next morning I rushed to the Airport armed with my ticket and passport to the Ethiopia airline counter to confirm the news that it was true and that the idiroko border stamp has been detected by the UAE government that it is an illegal border and there is no way a stamp can be dated with biro , which translates to the fact that Nigerians travelling since with same document previously have formed the habit of backdating their stamps on their passports.

Infact this was another gbege for me, because that was the same stamp on my passport that my agent stamped for me when I came in through Idiroko border. Infact I almost started behaving like a mad man at the airport, only God knew the way I got to my hotel from the Airport.
I was later told that the only solution at the moment was to exit Cotonou through seme border post( which was the authorised border point recognised by the UAE government and the Benin Republic government) and re enter again with a fresh stamp and also do some documentations and attestations of stay for the previous day's I have spent in Cotonou.
At the end of the day, I had no choice than going back to Seme border to restamp my passport with other Nigerians because lots of Nigerians where involve in the same idiroko border stamp issue.
At the end of this episode I have spend another 158k for restamping, letter of residence attestations, a fresh covid Test ( they asked me at the covid centre to carry out a fresh test with another money due to the fact that the previous covid I did has expired for over three weeks) and other miscellaneous expenses. This was money I was holding before to sort part of my hotel bills all gone due to a very bad agent that frustrated me.

During this process alot of Nigerians here who were in even a worst situation as mine have had their visa validity expired at Cotonou and making another application for a fresh visa just for the shame of going back home to Nigeria more dejected and frustrated. The situation was not a palatable one at all because since the incident at the Dubai airport , the Benin immigration officials were now refusing Nigerians to board as far you already have the fake Idi iroko stamp on your passport even after going to seme border to do a restamp. Lot of people missed their flights due to this current issues and a few lucky ones who were fast enough had to quickly reschedule their flight to carry out other attestations and documentation like Hotel bill receipts for the period they were in Benin to back up their passport restamp.

To be continued....

Richdee1:
Nicoswit
Hadampson
Niklausefred
Abeg tag the rest
Welcome back, its been long

It's been long man
How far bro? Richdee1

Thanks for the mention

Hadampson how is life?

Derende:
Good day everyone, I will be using this thread to carefully narrate my 30 days sojourn from Cotonou to the city of Dubai to enable those that are yet to make the trip or are already on their way to learn alot from my terrible experience and the breakthrough of overcoming all odds to finally travel into Dubai.
During my write-up my audience will know all the secrets surrounding the journey and the way agents frustrated alot of Nigerians who travelled through same road. It is a true life experience filled with tears, frustrations and a bit of happiness sandwiched in between. Let me not bore you with long talks just relax as I take you on a journey I kicked off from Benin city, Nigeria on the 12th of April 2021 that culminated into a 30 days trip.

P.s: kindly note that during the course of my experience in Cotonou there are some discussion I won't be able to dwell much on due to violating any of the nairaland rules, and also mind some of the typographical errors and just decode the message am giving out.

Na man you be

Hadampson:

Yeah bruh I have been away for a very long while too. Good to be back
Jaycew ( how's Poland treating you) Subomi007 lamboladee SaintHillary Vhuqnl Joohan Paccus Richdee1 ichbinbrait Canih28 olioxx Savagethe21st aziza45442 2Lynx NoFab123

I went offline for long you remove my name ko?

Wow!

It's really not easy, but anything to japa from this con3

skylane:
I went offline for long you remove my name ko?

Lol bro it seems like he forgot

Richdee1:
Nicoswit
Hadampson
Niklausefred
Abeg tag the rest
Welcome back, its been long

Thanks bro

Hadampson:


Yeah bruh
I have been away for a very long while too. Good to be back

Jaycew ( how's Poland treating you)
Subomi007
lamboladee
SaintHillary
Vhuqnl
Joohan
Paccus
Richdee1
ichbinbrait
Canih28
olioxx
Savagethe21st
aziza45442
2Lynx
NoFab123

Hadampson!!! It's been a while here.

Thank you for mentioning.

Following.

Naw a o. All these just to travel to Dubai? The Devil is a liar.