A travel agency known as Zidora Travel and Tours, operated by medical practitioner Arinze Madueke, withheld N6,195,000 collected from a Lagos resident, Henry Chidiebere (pseudonym), for a Canadian work visa, flight arrangements, and lodging.
Chidiebere’s ordeal began when Donald, the managing director’s younger sibling, connected him with the firm in 2025. Donald claimed his brother had secured six guaranteed Canadian immigration slots, assuring Chidiebere that his visa approval was virtually certain once payment was made.
Acting as a liaison, Donald escorted the client directly to the founder’s residence in Lagos, where the primary sum of N6 million was handed over.
On January 12, the firm instructed him via WhatsApp to visit their Lekki County Homes office near Ikota Villa Estate with his passport, identification photos, financial records, and a payment card to settle an additional visa charge of N495,000. He complied and handed over his documentation.
By April, Chidiebere had completed his biometrics at the VFS Global center in Lagos. However, on May 17, Zidora delivered disappointing news: the Canadian Embassy had turned down his request.
Chidiebere noted that until this setback, the entire transaction had been conducted casually on a foundation of mutual trust, without any mention of rigid terms and conditions. Furthermore, he discovered a major discrepancy in how his file was handled.
He explained that although they had contracted for an employment permit, the firm actually submitted an application for a visitor’s visa. When questioned, Donald could not justify the switch. Chidiebere later learned from personal contacts in Canada that obtaining a Canadian work authorization directly through local intermediaries in Nigeria is virtually unattainable—a reality agents deliberately conceal from unsuspecting clients.
Prior to submitting a follow-up request, the agency presented Chidiebere with a service agreement to endorse, which explicitly asserted under clause 3.3 that all monies paid were non-refundable and non-transferable.
Predictably, the subsequent attempt suffered the identical outcome, with the embassy issuing another denial on September 25.
When Chidiebere requested his funds back on October 13, the agency rebuffed him by citing the no-refund stipulation. In pushback, Chidiebere pointed out that no such document was signed when he entrusted them with the initial N6 million, having only signed terms alongside a secondary N195,000 fee for the second try.
He subsequently petitioned the agency to deduct standard operational costs—such as the roughly 100 CAD visa charge and 85 CAD biometrics cost, totaling around N450,000 to N500,000—and return the remaining balance.
Efforts by the press to obtain comments from Donald through calls and text messages on Tuesday initially yielded no response. Shortly after the messages were delivered, however, Donald contacted Chidiebere directly, urging him to intervene with reporters and promising that the firm was actively working on a settlement.
Formal inquiries sent to Zidora’s corporate email and messaging channels were left unanswered. Nevertheless, Chidiebere confirmed that the company, which had stonewalled his refund entreaties since mid-October, abruptly revived communication and claimed to be addressing his matter the moment journalists stepped in.
