No fewer than two people have lost their lives following a failed investment scheme in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.
It was also gathered that several other subscribers have been hospitalised as a result of the collapse of the scheme.
Participants in the scheme, known as ‘Agape Trade and Agape Thrift’, made these revelations during a press conference held in Ibadan on Wednesday.
The spokesman for the subscribers, Mr Abiodun Ayobami Mustafa, while addressing journalists, explained that more than 950 people invested in the scheme founded by Mr Enoch Adeoye.
Mustafa stated that the scheme began operations in Ibadan in January 2024, but all efforts by subscribers to receive returns on their contributions have been unsuccessful since last year.
He said that two people had died, while several others had been hospitalised due to their inability to recover their investments.
He added that many affected persons had been left traumatised and subjected to humiliation because the founder failed to pay them as expected.
Mustafa further disclosed that the subscribers had submitted a petition to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, appealing to the agency to intervene in the matter.
He used the opportunity to urge the EFCC to carry out a thorough investigation.
Addressing the EFCC management, Mustafa said, “We have 950 members who subscribed to this scheme. Many of us are in Ibadan. Here we have representatives of various subgroups. Members are scattered all over Nigeria. We have been waiting for more than one year to get our return on investment. He paid us during the first three months, but he stopped after the first three months.
“So, all efforts to get returns on our investment since then have proved to be abortive. So, it was after this occurrence that we gathered ourselves together to have this press conference.
“The hallmark of the establishment of the EFCC was against the background of the culture of financial crimes which pervades our society. It has affected the fabric of the society, snowballed into debilitating moral decadence, which affects innocent Nigerians within the civilian populace-and all other institutions.
“In light of this petition, it is our candid opinion and respectful submission to you sir, that these despicable acts of the suspect on our clients are not only illegal and unlawful but amount to criminality to which the extant laws of the land frowns at and to which your good office is saddled with the constitutional duty to apprehend, investigate and prosecute if found culpable.
“We know that your office has the power to investigate this petition; we are lodging this petition with your office.”
