The history of 419 in Nigeria

Well, even in foreign countries, fingers are easily pointed at Nigerians because the outside world believe we are "419ers"

Did you know that the first exponent of 419 in Nigeria was not a Nigerian?

"On 18 December 1920, a certain Mr. Crentsil, a former employee of the Marine Department of the colonial government in Lagos, wrote an extraordinary letter to a contact in the British colony of the Gold Coast, today's Ghana....

It is ironic that the first known Four One Nine fraudster known to history was not a Nigerian at all, but rather a Ghanaian.

Crentsil seems to have written a number of similar letters, each time offering to provide magical services on payment of a fee.

In December 1921, he was charged by the police with three counts under various sections of the criminal code including section 419...

But Crentsil was in luck; the magistrate presiding over his case discharged him with caution on the first count and acquitted him on the two others for lack of corrobating evidence, as a result of which 'he (Crentsil) is now boasting that he got off owing to his juju powers', reported the Chief of Police in Onitsha province."

Source: Stephen Ellis, This Present Darkness - A History of Nigerian Organised Crime. Hurst & Company, London 2016

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