The FCT Police Command have arrested Imu Ovaioza Yunusa, the CEO of Ovaioza Group of Companies, for swindling investors of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Yunusa was arrested on Monday, April 18, according to sources at the police headquarters. She was accused of “criminal breach of trust and cheating.”
She was allegedly planning to leave the country with her husband, David, when the officers apprehended her in Abuja.
The case is being handled by the Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID).
She is currently in police custody and will be transferred to the State Police Command on Tuesday, April 19 according to The Whistler.
Yunusa ran an agricultural food storage business in Nigeria called the Ovaioza Farm Produce Storage Business (OFPSB) until she was arrested.
She was alleged to have created a partnership plan that guaranteed investors a 70-80% return on investment while keeping them up to date on their investments on her verified Facebook page, gaining attention and confidence 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 apparently 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).
“However, I must admit my ignorance as to the extent of corporate compliance that is necessary for my buying and selling business, especially as the business grew, owing to funds sought from the public.
“I asked my lawyer to reach out to SEC to ensure the needful was done. I did this to ensure that my interest and the collective interest of my partners are protected by law.
“My lawyer duly reached out to SEC and reported back to me (I was not the one who went to SEC) that SEC said they don’t regulate buying and selling.
“I must also admit that maybe we should have made a written application requesting for SEC to register my business, but unfortunately we did not do so.
“This huge mistake on our part is particularly why are here battling to wriggle out of the SEC conundrum and not necessarily whether a petition was written against OFPSB or not.
“I say so because, without registration with SEC, it was only a matter of time before they come for us if we had carried on the business without registration,” she wrote.
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