Some aggrieved members of ATIC Business Venture, a cooperative society, and the Anambra State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Remi Adeoye, are trading accusations over an alleged mismanagement of a N20bn investment.

The cooperative society is believed to be an online investment club that was set up by Adeoye to create wealth for members of the society.

Our correspondent, however, learnt that things began to go south when some club members alleged that the CP was using his position to browbeat aggrieved members into silence after they raised concerns over the alleged mismanagement of the club’s money.

Although the CP, in a recent interview with a PUNCH Metro correspondent, described the claims as an attempt to discredit his hard-earned personality, the aggrieved members accused the CP of premeditated fraud.

A UK-based member of the club who said he had over N5m investment with the club, Dr Wale Ismail, told our correspondent in an interview that he was expelled from the group after he demanded accountability and transparency in respect of the club’s money.

He said, “After I joined in 2021, by 2022, we would have received a dividend of N15,000. There are a lot of members who did not receive the payment. I was supposed to get a dividend last year, but I didn’t. And a lot of members did not. Before then, I put some money into the crypto he introduced to the members of the society. He asked us to invest in it, and he promised, based on that investment model, an iron guarantee.

“He said nothing would happen to our investment. He said we would get a 10% monthly return for 12 months and that at the end of that month; you would have your capital back. This was around May or June 2022. Since then, he hasn’t paid anything.

“He has been delaying, giving various excuses. If people ask questions, he will just deflect. Sometimes, he does not even answer. And when he answers, he will just give another round of excuses.”

A Nigerian-based member, Mr Tokunbo Peters, said he had never been satisfied with the leadership style of the club but was later shocked after he received a paltry sum of N17,500 for the 2022 dividend in April 2023, adding that members who asked questions were tagged as ”traitors” and “rebels”.

He said, “I was uncomfortable with the leadership style and model of the club, where every decision revolves around a single individual and everyone is expected to be subservient to him. Those who refuse to kowtow and those with dissenting opinions are mostly insulted and labelled as traitors.

“Financial members are most of the time kept in the dark on the investment activities of the club and the reasons for the delay in the payment of dividends, which is supposed to be an annual basic entitlement to all members.

“There was no concrete plan for when our unpaid dividends and investment sums would be paid. Shortly afterwards, I was blocked from the exit lounge by one of the choristers. I had to complain privately and publicly to Remi Adeoye before I was added back to the exit lounge.”

He lamented that there was no time frame for the payment of the money invested in the club by members who had signified their intention to leave, especially after they had been removed and blocked from the club’s platform.

Another US-based member, Ayo Turton, told PUNCH Metro that the problem between the CP and the members started when they began to ask for an audit and proper financial accountability.

Turton said, “He is a police officer, and because of some of the things we saw him posting on Facebook, we trusted them. He told us that the club’s investment was now worth N20bn. We didn’t know he was planning a grand Ponzi scheme. He started the cooperative.

“He made the whole thing centre around him. If he’s not online, everything has to freeze. Members are kept in the dark. Members started questioning and calling for an audit and more explanations. He will collect money before doing due diligence, and then he will come back to say the plan has fallen through.

“As a police officer, you have the opportunity to ask questions before you collect money from people. He will discover that land is not available after he has collected money from members. People will ask for their money back, and he will be telling stories.

“You cannot talk; the moment you want to ask questions and enlighten people, you will be removed. He uses the classic Ponzi approach. The problem started when we started to ask him for an accounting book and that club financial accounts should be audited.”

While calling on those in authority to help retrieve their investment from the CP, Mrs Doyinsola Ilori said all they wanted was a fair deal for all parties.

She said, “If you say anything contrary to what he wants, you are instantly dealt with like you are an enemy. If you revealed that your dividends had not been paid, he would ignore you.

“Our lawyer wrote to him, and he ignored it. He threatened that he was ready to fight a media war. All we want is the value of the investment based on the current price, not to be refunded with the money we completed paying over four years ago.”

While reacting to the accusations in an interview with PUNCH Metro on Monday, CP Adeoye described the claims made by the aggrieved members as attacks on his reputation, labelling them as “criminal defamation of character.”

He said “They are our members and started fomenting trouble. In the course of this, they issued threats. Someone who issues threats to others is a criminal. The person they want to haunt down is the largest shareholder, who has 11 million shares. If something is wrong with the finances, who is the first to know? What they are doing now is criminal defamation of character. When you defame a person criminally, that is a crime. The Board of Trustees met and expelled them; after they were expelled, they labelled the club Ponzi.

“We bought land as a cooperative. And we have one document for it in the name of the cooperative for each purchase. Am I supposed to tear the document into pieces and then begin to share them? We are an online investment platform. We published all the receipts and payments on our page, and every member sees them.

“We have created a lounge to process their settlement. We are writing to the developer to remove the parts of the bulk purchase for them and issue documents to them in their names. Developers charge 10% of the current value of the land for that. We are not asking them to pay us. They should pay directly to the developer. We will only certify them as our members for the process.” (The PUNCH)

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