Two persons, one of them an Auchi Polytechnic undergraduate, have been arrested by Police detectives attached to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police Special Squad for creating a fake Forex company with which they milked a Lagos-based business woman the sum of N32m.
The suspects identified as Idowu Ohaimen and Innocent Iyowagahe from Edo State, were rounded up in their respective villages in Auchi.
Innocent, the arrowhead of the syndicate, confessed to The Guardian that he was the one, who created the app and called on prospective investors through WhatsApp to invest their money in the business with an assurance that they would get double of whatever they invested.
The suspect said he was moved to create the bogus company to enable him to assist his family, especially his sick father.
He said: “I was the one who created the Forex app in line with Octa-Effex and called it Essi Forex Trading Company. Initially, many people were skeptical and would not invest, but others called and said they wanted to give a trial. It was in this process that we met Mrs. Iyabo Ajoke. Initially, she said she was going to invest N20,000 and get N40,000, but she ended up bringing N100,000 as an initial deposit. That was how she started bringing money until it got to N32m and she said she was no longer interested in the business.”
Continuing, he added: “We are six in the group but I am the one that created the company. Each of us gets our respective percentage from the money. The Aza man, Mr. Ojo (the man who owns the account in which all the money was paid into) also got his percentage. Of the N32m, my own share was N15m and I gave my friend, who is in school, N465,000. We have known each other since we were in secondary school.
“When the woman said she was no longer interested, it was him that convinced her to continue with the business with the assurance that her money was safe. I still have the N15m I collected in my bank account, as I speak, because even though my father was aware of the deal, he warned me not to be extravagant with the money. The other money I was using was the ones I got from other investors; using it to buy drugs and food stuff for the family because it is only my senior brother that is assisting my mother.”
Asked why the woman kept paying money even though she was not getting her money doubled as promised, Innocent said: “Normally before we start chatting her, I would pray to God to allow the business work and to touch the heart of the woman and make her agree with whatever we tell her. We didn’t use juju or what they call Yahoo plus on her. I had the mind of going to do juju really but my father stopped me and said it was not good.
Actually, the woman didn’t pay the money once; she was paying in tranches. And anytime she asked what happened to the money she was supposed to collect doubled, we would cook up story that she wouldn’t be able to collect the money now, due to some technical
problems that she should pay certain amount again to increase her collection and she would pay. That was how she was paying until she said she was no longer interested in the business.
“When it was clear that she was no longer going to pay more money, we threw away the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card with which we chatted with her and blocked her. While the woman was paying the money I felt for her because I knew she would not get her money back but at the same time, I needed the money to take care of my sick father and assist my family.”
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Superintendent of Police (SP) Ben Hundeyin, who
confirmed the arrest, said it was based on a petition by the woman dated January 30, 2023, which was assigned to the CP Special Squad.
“The policemen went to Auchi in Edo State and upon painstaking tracking, got the suspects arrested and they have confessed to the crime,” he said.
