• Caution residents against money doublers, others
The police in Ogun have commenced investigation into allegations of fraud levelled against a digital loan firm, known as Legend Empowerment Services.
The probe followed an outcry by Itoku market women, traders, and petty entrepreneurs, who raised the alarm over their purported investment.
Their outrage propelled the Divisional Police officer (DPO), Oke-Itoku, Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), Hadiza Abu Oganyi, to swiftly swing into action to ascertain the rancorous situation.
The Guardian gathered that one Morenikeji Ogunniyi, ‘f’, invested N48,000, Abosede Aremu, ‘f’, invested N45,000, Idiatu Adeogun , ‘f’, invested N31,000 and Saheed Sufian, ‘m’, were among the investors that patronised Legend Empowerment Services with juicy offer of multiplying their categories of investments.
The firm allegedly offered the above-named investors N50,000 to anyone, who deposited N8,000 and N100,000 to anyone who deposited N16,000 in three weeks.
A police source told The Guardian that they are yet to ascertain the kind of loan Legend Empowerment Services was offering and if they are legally registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission or not.
Confirming the incident, spokesperson for Ogun State Police Command, Superintendent of Police (SP) Omolola Odutola, in a statement, yesterday, said the attention of the Command was drawn on the matter on June 20, 2023, through an outcry from Itoku market women, traders and petty entrepreneurs.
According to her, from the scanty information before the Divisional Police officer (DPO), these offers excited the victims and they jumped at them without any form of verification from Ogun State Police.
Odutola said preliminary investigation exposed Legendary Empowerment Services to have employed one Adedayo Omolola, ‘f’, verbally without a contract of employment and the same thing with one Adedayo Tosin, ‘m’, who only recently got employed by Legend Empowerment two weeks ago.
According to her, Omolola has been in the supposed employ for two months and had received two months salary.
“When she was asked about her designation in the Loan company, she replied that she was a secretary and that there are about six others in the company as marketers, but Adedayo Tosin, ‘m’, is their supervisor.
“While revealing further to the police, they stated that the dividend of their loan would mature on Friday, June 23, 2023.
“The owner of Legend Empowerment services, one Lawal Akinwale, ‘m’, was contacted on phone, his number was restricted to flight mode and could not reached.
“Online loans are notoriously popular these days, some serve the desired purposes as an instant platform to assist small scale business owners who require dire assistance; these are the genuine outlets.
“There are other online loan services that clone themselves as real, whereas they are set up to defraud unsuspecting members of the public.
“Ogun State Police Command is hereby advising the good people of Ogun State not to fall for digital lenders, online loan schemes, and money doublers, who perform instant promissory payment on unattainable interest rates.
“The above case is particularly significant and will be used as a case study to further investigate the veracity of these illegal flourishing ‘419’ Digital Loan Services.
“The Command will continue to assist members of the public to sanitise and purge the system of criminality. We seek your cooperation while the instant case is under review,” the police spokesperson added.
