In a touching narration, 27-year-old John Akpan Ode, a native of Ogoja in Cross River state has narrated how he landed in kirikiri prison following his arrest over 6million forex fraud.
His story
My name is Akpan John Ode. I am from Yala Local Government Area of Cross River State. After my WAEC, I decided to relocate to Lagos and do something useful with my life. I stayed with one man from my village and learnt how to fix tiles and roofs. I was also helping the company to market their products. From the little money I made from the company, I enrolled into Lagos State Polytechnic to study marketing.
I was doing well until I started introducing others to the business. The first set of people I introduced on the platforms I use, did very well and made good money from their investments. For a long time, I didn’t have any problem with anyone until I decided to invest in a new platform last year. My investment on the platform grew from $300 to about $5,700 and I was doing bi-weekly withdrawal of $200 to take care of my personal needs.
One day, a sister introduced a lady based in Abuja to me. The lady said she was interested in forex so I introduced her to the new platform I was using. She had just $360 so I assisted her with an additional $300 to start off. I only offered assistance but she was doing the trading herself. The lady made $5,000 over time but chose to reinvest the profit instead of withdrawing it. We were all shocked one day when the site froze and we could not trade again. It was later that it dawned on us that we had been scammed. The lady called me and insisted that I must refund her $5,000 but I explained to her that I am also a victim. She made a lot of trouble until I stopped hearing from her.
I had forgotten everything until July when I returned from my village where I had gone to visit my parents. My tiles and roofing work was not coming regularly so I tried to do other things to survive. In August, I got a call from a strange person who I later discovered was a police officer. Before that call, they had already arrested one of my brothers and his wife. They also arrested one of my sisters in Lekki who eventually led them to my house. The police officers initially told me that my arrest was in respect of a phone but when they took me to their office in Ikeja, they began to ask me a different question.
When we got to the Lagos State Police Command in Ikeja, the police officers asked me if I knew anyone called Ugochi. I replied that I knew her and told them how I introduced her into the forex trading platform which eventually crashed. They insisted that I was lying and threatened to beat the hell out of me if I continued lying. They showed me a petition that Ugochi had written alleging that she invested N6 million through me. When I maintained that I never defrauded the complainant, I was locked up in a cell for 11 days. My family didn’t know my whereabouts for those 11 days as my phone was seized. I was taken to the office of the Commissioner of Police where they took my statement. I showed them my WhatsApp conversations with the complainant and the $360 she sent to me for the investment.
Despite all my explanations, the police said I should refund the N6million. I told them that I didn’t have any money and that I also lost my all investments. When they realised that I didn’t have any money, they decided to file a charge against me before a Magistrate court.
Journey to Kirikiri
I was arraigned for fraud before an Ogba Magistrate Court. I pleaded not guilty to the charges and was granted bail. Unfortunately, I didn’t have anyone to stand surety for me so I was taken to Kirikiri prison pending when I could sort out my bail. The matter was adjourned to two subsequent dates but I still didn’t have anyone to stand as surety for me.
