Jessica Ibeh, a 22-year-old student and self-acclaimed businesswoman, has used the story of a young boy’s eye surgery to raise money and disappeared afterwards.
In January, Jessica told her social media followers to send donations to her Access Bank and Zenith Bank accounts to raise money for the eye surgery of the son of Natasha Irikefe, one of her followers.
She used a picture of the boy’s bandaged face to solicit on Telegram and WhatsApp. According to some of the donors, she amassed over N5 million in a few days, but the scam turned on its head when Irikefe spoke publicly to deny knowledge of the fundraiser and receipt of the donations.
Irikefe, addressing donors on WhatsApp, said she approached Jessica for the said fundraiser, but never got money from her as her son’s dad paid for the surgery.
She said, “I am a single mom, not ashamed of it. My kid’s dad is in Australia. I fend for my kids and I am proud of it. I asked [Jessica] when my boy was pierced with a compass in school. Out of fear and distress, I cried out”.
When Irikefe went public, Jessica sent her a message, accusing her of intentionally making false claims because she had never benefited from her giveaways.
Halleluyah Morounfoluwa, one of the donors, told FIJ that she had been donating to similar courses since 2020, waiting for when she would benefit as well.
Explaining how the scam works, she said Jessica asks her followers who need financial aid to share their stories with her, after which she puts out a call for donations. When her followers donate, she claims to give one selected person in need.
Morounfoluwa said she kept donating tens of thousands of naira, but when she approached Jessica for aid during one alleged N200,000 giveaway, she never got a reply.
JESSICA USES HER MOTHER’S ACCOUNT
Ijeoma Samuel Ibeh, Jessica’s mother, could be a beneficiary of some of the donations made.
From a WhatsApp group created by some of the donors, FIJ obtained one of Jessica’s messages sent to solicit funds. The account name and number belonged to her mother. The message clearly stated it too.
Her message read, “So my mom said bank’s debiting 10% out of every money that enters her business account. Na why I no wan open business account since; Bank and Wahala. So, account changed:
“SAMUEL IBEH IJEOMA
ZENITH BANK
2254663235″
She had earlier used her mother’s current account to receive donations.
FIJ observed that aggrieved members of this group had titled the group, “Beware of GlowbyJessy.” As of press time, there were 166 participants in the group.
1 Comment
She is shameless human being with no fear of God , I personally wan to see her face to face… I want to see how shamelessly she will deal with this when she’s finally caught, cause I heard she doesn’t stay at one location she keeps hiding but I know she can never hid for long