Alleged Fake Manager Job Used as Lure in Suspected Organ-Hunting Operation in Imo State

 Alleged Fake Manager Job Used as Lure in Suspected Organ-Hunting Operation in Imo State A young man in Imo State was nearly killed some day...

 Alleged Fake Manager Job Used as Lure in Suspected Organ-Hunting Operation in Imo State

A young man in Imo State was nearly killed some days ago after responding to an advertised manager vacancy that, according to the account given by his family, was used to lure job seekers into an alleged organ-hunting operation.

The incident began in the ordinary way many job searches begin. An online notice advertised a manager position and named a location where applicants were to report. The young man prepared, printed the documents he believed he needed, and went to the place stated in the notice.

On arrival, he and other applicants were redirected to another site entirely, at the Fire Service, and told the change was part of the process. The gathering was described to them as a seminar. They were then instructed to put their phones away. Once the phones were collected, the applicants no longer had a ready means of calling for help.

More than ten people, men and women, were said to have been running the operation inside the room. Before anything further was done, they moved through the crowd asking questions that sounded casual: whether applicants smoked, and whether they drank. Those present did not understand why drinking or smoking habits would matter for a manager post. According to the account, the questions were not employment screening. They were used to assess organs. A liver or kidney from a heavy drinker or smoker is described in the account as less valuable to those involved in the trade, so the questions came first.

Applicants were then separated into small rooms. A handkerchief soaked in a substance was pressed toward each person’s face, and they were told to breathe it in. Consciousness was lost within moments, along with any memory of where they were or what was happening.

One young man — identified in the account as someone’s nephew — still had enough presence of mind, before the drug took hold, to notice that the room, the questions, and the sudden collection of phones did not match any job interview he knew. In the short window left to him, he sent his location to his mother and told her his life was in danger.

That message is what saved him. His mother did not wait. She went with military personnel to the Fire Service location. Word reached those running the operation that soldiers were closing in, and they scattered into the surrounding hills. Searchers found the young man in the backyard of the facility, unconscious and drugged, left on the ground. He was rushed to hospital and revived. He is alive because his mother acted at once and because he sent one message in his last seconds of consciousness.

He remains traumatized.

The family has also raised a point they say should not be ignored: the Fire Service location where this allegedly took place sits close to a police station. They ask how an operation involving more than ten people, a fake seminar, phone confiscation, and drugging could run so near law enforcement without being detected. The family’s suspicion that the trade may have protection inside official institutions is presented as a suspicion arising from a near tragedy, and one they say deserves investigation rather than silence.

The account states that this is not treated as an isolated story. Fake job postings used to lure people to remote or unexpected locations are described as a known method, and organ-trafficking rings operating under the cover of recruitment have been reported before in the country. What is said to set this case apart is that it almost succeeded, and that the survivor is someone’s son, someone’s nephew, and a person known in the community.

Job seekers and families are being urged to take basic precautions: verify a company before going anywhere; check the address independently rather than relying only on the number or flyer; tell someone exactly where they are going and when they expect to return, before leaving home; leave immediately if redirected to a location different from the one advertised; keep a phone on them regardless of any instruction to surrender it; and treat questions about drinking or smoking asked before qualifications as a warning sign.

The young man is alive because his mother refused to sit still. Ekere Ọrụ Eke warns that not every child will have a parent who can move that fast, or a moment of clarity before a drug takes hold.