Infamous Nigerian prince is trying to scam people from space now

By Lee Mathews Feb. 14, 2016 11:28 am

That Nigerian fellow who used to send you emails — he’s just not as communicative as he used to be. There’s a good reason for that: he’s trapped in space and can’t get home without your help!

It turns out that Dr. Bakare Tunde’s cousin, Abacha Tunde, has been stuck aboard the ISS for the past 14 years. According to the friends who are now trying to bring him home, he was bumped from the Soviet vessel that was supposed to return him to Earth in order to make room for additional cargo. That’s not the kind of treatment you’d expect for a man who’s been to space twice.

A Nigerian astronaut? Why the heck haven’t you heard of him before? You won’t find any record of his first visit in 1979, because it was kept secret, according to his cousin. You also won’t find any mentions of his return in 1989 because, well, probably because the Russians and Nigerians want to keep the whole embarrassing “lost in space” thing quiet. Can you blame them?

Now, at long last, his family and friends are ready to intervene. The cost is steep, however, and that’s why they’re seeking financial help via an email campaign. Mr. Tunde, they say, is owed $15 million in back flight pay and interest. It’s being held in trust until his return, so it can’t be used to cover the $3 million the Russians want to transport him.

Abacha’s family and friends can cover the expense, but they just need access to an overseas bank account to make the payment — Nigeria’s Code of Conduct Bureau (a real thing) prevents them from doing it directly since they’re civil servants. If you’re good enough to help out, they’ll give you 20% for your troubles. That’s $600,000 just for helping shift around a little cash! And the best part is that you’re helping one of Nigeria’s national heroes make his triumphant return to Earth. Honest!

Yes, the whole thing is a scam, and one that’s even more outlandish and less believable than the old 419 scams involving Nigerian princes. It’s been circulating since at least 2010, but it’s generating buzz this week thanks to the editors at The Anorak receiving one of the emails.

It’s easy enough to fact check this one. Zip over to Wikipedia and you’ll see that, yes, Nigeria does have a space agency (the National Space Research and Development Agency). It was founded in 1999, two full decades after Tunde was supposed to have made his first trip to space.

They’ve put satellites into orbit (the photo at the top was taken by one of them), but never astronauts. Their goal had been to do that by 2015, but the year came and went without a Nigerian making it into space. You know,

 because they already did that nearly 40 years ago.