A 300-level student of the Department of Agriculture, University of Ilorin, Gbenga Favour Olaoye-Akanbi, has committed suicide after he was allegedly duped by a forex trader, Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel (ESG).
Family sources told reporters that Olaoye-Akanbi was discovered dead on Sunday after drinking poison.
The 19-year-old student was said to have invested over N300 million belonging to his colleagues and friends in a business run by ESG.
Speaking to a reporter, a friend of the deceased and an investor with the firm explained how they were duped.
He said, “The investment is forex. The guy’s name is Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel. We started the investment together this year. It seems he stopped trading, so he turned indirectly to a Ponzi scheme without the knowledge of those investing.
“He has a particular group. Most people in that group collected money from other people to invest in his business. The late Gbenga collected money from different people to invest with ESG at a certain percentage.
“Later on, the investment crashed, and the guy was arrested. With the help of some senior police officials, he was released. So over time, people that were with ESG as investors( they had borrowed money to invest) were now being pressurized to repay the loan they took. I am one of the investors, too; we were under a lot of pressure to pay up. So I think because of this guy’s age, he is just 19-year-old, he couldn’t withstand the pressure and committed suicide.”
A course mate of the deceased said he assured them that forex is not a Ponzi scheme and that he had back up funds, much enough to pay every one of his investors their capital and profits even if things went wrong.
“It’s so sad; I have over N5m investment deal with him. He claimed to be the one doing the trading initially, but when the problem started around June, he started mentioning one Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel as his boss. He told us they were arrested together, but that our money was safe with him.
He later promised to pay everyone’s capital before December. I was surprised when I saw people posting his pictures with RIP today,” he told Freelanews.
Ojelabi, the publisher of Freelanews, is an award winning and professionally trained mass communicator, who writes ruthlessly about pop culture, religion, politics and entertainment.
