Abuja Police Detain Popular Agric Entrepreneur Ovaioza Accused Of Defrauding Investors –
Following charges that she swindled investors out of hundreds of millions of dollars, the FCT Police Command’s Whistler Nigeria Operatives have arrested prominent agric entrepreneur, Ovaioza Yunusa.
Yunusa was arrested on Monday, according to sources at the police command. She was accused of “criminal breach of trust and cheating,” according to the sources.
She is currently in police custody and will be transferred to the State Police Command on Tuesday, according to reports.
Yunusa ran an agricultural produce storage business in Nigeria called the Ovaioza Farm Produce Storage Business until she was arrested (OFPSB).
She was said to have started a partnership scheme that promised investors a 70-80% return on investment while keeping them up to date on their investments on her verified Facebook page, gaining visibility and trust from potential investors.
Yunusa has been accused of leading a lavish lifestyle as more people invested in the company and it expanded into new sectors in the last year.
The company reportedly went bankrupt in March 2022 after she was accused of mismanaging investors’ funds, resulting in her inability to pay investors a return on their investments.
She recognized the company was in trouble in a Facebook post on Saturday, but assured investors that their money would be returned.
She said that she had registered OFPSB with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) but was unaware that she also required to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) (SEC).
“However, I must admit my ignorance of the level of corporate compliance required for my buying and selling business, particularly as the business grew and funds were sought from the public.”
“I instructed my lawyer to contact the Securities and Exchange Commission to ensure that the necessary steps were taken. This was done to ensure that my interests and the interests of my partners as a group were protected by law.
“My lawyer contacted the SEC and was informed (I was not the one who went to the SEC) that the SEC does not control buying and selling.
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“I must also admit that we should have submitted a written application to the SEC requesting that they register my business, but we did not.”
“It’s because of this big blunder on our part that we’re here fighting to get out of the SEC quagmire, not because of whether or not a petition was filed against OFPSB.”
“I say so because, if we had carried on the business without registration with the SEC, it was only a matter of time before they came after us,” she wrote.
