A student of the University of Ilorin, Gbenga Favour Olaoye-Akanbi, has allegedly committed suicide after loosing the sum of N300m to a forex trader, Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel (ESG).
It was gathered that the late student resolved to take his life after losing the huge amount to his forex partner.
A source in the family, who hinted on the sad event, said the 300 level student was discovered dead after he drank poison.
It was learnt that Olaoye-Akanbi invested over N300 million belonging to his colleagues and friends in a business run by ESG.
Explaining how they were duped, a friend of the deceased 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 officers, he was released. So, over time, people that were with ESG as investors( they had borrowed money to invest) were now being pressurised to repay the loans 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 years old, he couldn’t withstand the pressure, and he committed suicide.”
One of his colleagues in school said he assured them that forex was not a Ponzi scheme and that he had back up funds, enough to pay every one of his investors their capital and profits, even if things went wrong.
He said, “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.”
Kwara State Police Public Relations Officer could not be reached as of press time.