Is it a crime for a woman to collect money from a man with the promise of visiting him but failed to fulfil the promise?

by Stan Alieke, Esq.

A netizen called out a lady during the week. The gist was that he met the girl on TikTok and they started bonding together, they decided to meet in person and get to know each other better, but unfortunately, they live in different cities, so the girl asked the guy to book a flight for her or send her transport fare so she could come and see him. The guy booked the flight for the lady only for the lady to reroute the flight to another destination and ghosted the guy.

The guy said he has been calling the girl to refund him the flight money since it became obvious that the girl does not want to come and see him but the girl refused to reply to his messages. The guy is threatening legal action against the girl, he boasted that if the girl didn’t refund him the flight money in 24hours he will make sure that the girl rots in jail.

The legal issue here is; is the action of the girl asking the guy to book a flight for her or to send her transport fare to come and see him only to ghost the guy a criminal offense?

In section 418/419 of the criminal code, it is provided that obtaining money or property of another by false pretense or fake promise is a crime punishable with at least seven years imprisonment term.

On this note, the guy can file a petition against the lady for obtaining from him under false pretense and fake promise that she will come and see him BUT in another section of the criminal code, specifically, S.223(2), it is a criminal offense for a man to pay or send money to a woman money for sex. It is called procurement.

This section provides thus; S.223(2) Any person who procures a woman or girl to become a common prostitute either in Nigeria or elsewhere is guilty of a misdemeanor and is liable to imprisonment for two years.

On this note, the lady can argue in her defense that the man sent her money to visit him for sex thereby committing the crime of procurement. Maybe the man can as well argue that he was just inviting the lady out on a date and not for sex hence have not committed the crime of procurement by booking a flight for the lady.

Both of them have a case and whoever presents a more solid argument wins.

Stan Alieke is a legal practitioner.
infoitooknow@gmail.com