A pregnant petty trader collapsed and was hospitalised after allegedly being threatened over the phone by one Bunmi, a recovery agent for online loan platform Cycle Cash.
It was gathered that the incident occurred in the first week of November in the Sango-Otta area of Ogun State.
A male resident of the community who spoke with The Herald under the condition of anonymity said he learnt that the trader, Mrs Shade Ogunromo, got a loan from an online loan platform, Cycle Cash Loan, for a seven-day tenure.
The witness said that on the sixth day, Bunmi with phone number 07064400275 began to call the trader to pay off the loan.
He said that the loan recovery agent told the pregnant trader that she would die with her baby if the loan was not repaid on the due date.
The witness further said he learnt that the pregnant trader collapsed due to the harassment and was rushed to a nearby hospital for medical attention.
He said he was moved by compassion and donated N10,000 to the pregnant woman to clear the loan on November 2.
The witness said that the Federal Government must intervene to check the nefarious activities of loan apps offering loans under outrageous conditions to hapless Nigerians.
In an email to The Herald on Friday, November 25, the witness said, “I know of a woman that stays in my area in Sango-Ota. I buy provisions from her store.
“Two weeks ago, she was body shamed/threatened by one of these online loans named CYCLE CASH LOAN.
“According to her, she collected some money and she was meant to pay the sum of 9 thousand naira after 7days, but on the 6th day a girl named Bunmi started calling her and told her she need to pay the money.
“According to her, she told the lady from Cycle Cash Loan that her due date is the next day, making 7th day, but she said the lady started shouting at her.
“She said that on the 7th day around 8:30am she called her to ask if she had paid the money and she told her she would pay that same day and even explained to her that she is pregnant and she would pay before 4pm.
“She said that the Bunmi girl from Cycle Cash Loan told her that if she did not pay before 12pm that she and her baby would DIE.”
The witness said that the loan recovery agent also allegedly used abusive words on the pregnant trader and “threatened the family that the pregnant woman will die”.
He said that the pregnant trader’s husband confirmed to him that Bunmi called contacts on his wife’s phone to curse and threaten them.
“These are not meant to happen in our society,” the witness said.
Explaining how he got involved, the witness said, “When I got to her shop in the evening, I saw people at the woman’s shop because I learnt she fainted and was rushed to the hospital.
“I was the one that give the husband the sum of 10k to pay for the loan.
“This needs to be stopped in our society because this as caused a lot of damage and the online loans are using the medium to (harass) the less privileged.”
When contacted via the phone number provided, Bunmi said she did not have a recollection of threatening anybody by that name.
“I don’t have anybody by that name on my list,” she said.
She added that she only dealt with returning clients and not those borrowing for the first time.