Hundreds of Nigerian fans stranded in Russia after bogus travel agents sell them false packages

HUNDREDS of Nigerian football fans have been left stranded in Russia unable to return home having being sold false travel packages that involved their return plane tickets being cancelled by bogus travel agencies that booked them.

Despite Nigeria having being eliminated from the tournament, these fans are unable to return home and are now sleeping like destitutes on the streets of Russian cities. Apparently, fraudsters tricked hundreds of fans by selling them bogus World Cup fan passes but the return tickets were not honoured, making it impossible for them to leave.

Now stranded and penniless, some of these fans are looking for a way out. Some of them used the official Fan IDs to come to Russia with the promise of finding work or even playing professional football themselves.

Others said they came to watch World Cup matches but got stranded when their return plane tickets were cancelled by the bogus travel agencies. Ismail Olamilekan, 21, and his brother Sodiq, 25, said they paid N250,000 (€600) or $700 each to a man in Lagos for their Fan IDs.

He added: "The man told us that with the Fan ID we could get a job and stay here. However, when we got here we discovered that it was a fraud, that he had just collected the money and lied to us.

"In Nigeria I play football. He told me that if I started working I can also start a football career in Russia,"

Plastic-coated passes issued by the Russian government enable foreign fans to enter the country without a visa during the World Cup but they expire before the end of July. They are issued free to fans who have bought tickets for World Cup matches but some agents sold them to Nigerians who wanted to come to Russia to work.

A group of about a dozen Nigerians waiting at Moscow's Vnukovo airport, said that they had been sleeping there for days. Some of them said they paid more than N1m each to an agent for a package including flights, match tickets and a fan ID.

Alonge Ademola, 35, a cement dealer from Lagos, said: "We've been sleeping on the floor like fools as we've got no place to go. We really do want to go back to our country, we've cried, we've wept but still no solution."

Russian charity Alternativa said it had helped about 50 Nigerians stranded in Russia and estimated there were about 200 in difficulty overall. Yulia Siluyanova, the charity's spokeswoman, said that the authorities in cooperation with Alternativa had made arrangements for about 20 stranded Nigerians to be flown back home.

She added: "With globalisation the opportunities for criminals are also increasing. The Fan IDs make an extremely profitable business for them."

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova added that the issue of stranded fans was not desirable but it is also natural.  She added that it was now up to the Nigerian embassy in Moscow to step in and resolve the problem.