The plan of Osazuwa Osayi and Uyi Osayimwense, co-founders of Farmforte Agro Allied to dupe investors was hatched and carried out with brutal precisio
The plan of Osazuwa Osayi and Uyi Osayimwense, co-founders of Farmforte Agro Allied to dupe investors was hatched and carried out with brutal precision.
They opened a shop in 2012 as a value chain development firm focused on transforming the agriculture landscape of Nigeria.
They came out loud on both traditional and social media, showcasing their activities in newspapers and on radio and television stations, not forgetting Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and other popular online platforms.
For results, they claimed affiliation with an agro-allied company in Europe.
The design of their company’s website, www.farmforte.com, was creative, eye-catching and mobile-friendly.
Playing to the rules for five years, Osayi and Osayimwense gathered strength and patronage in government circle and the community.
By this time, they had acquired a state-of-the-art cashew processing facility in Edo state and attracted the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, to commission it alongside other influential figures home and abroad.
The commissioning received flamboyant hype in the media.
Like hunters, they set their trap and waited patiently for their prey.
The groundwork settled, and they came out in their true colours.
Firstly, they branched out of the buying and selling of agricultural products and launched AgropartnershipsTechnology Limited, a digital investment subsidiary of Farmforte.
They claimed that, “the fund and portfolio management company is licensed by the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC)”.
At the same time, the CEOs announced that Forest Capital, another subsidiary of Farmforte, had acquired Kayvee Microfinance Bank, “to create greater synergy between socio-economic empowerment, agriculture and the finance sector.
Thus, Farmforte became a digital investment platform, where investors are attracted to investing in farm produce with mouth-watering returns on investments (ROI).
According to the company’s website, “Agropartnerships is a simple and secure collaborative platform that enables you to engage in profitable agribusiness opportunities from your home.
“You can invest in farms, trade in commodities and count your profits in no time.”
This, it seemed, was the original plan of Osayi and Osayimwense.
With a strong digital presence, they gradually reclined into the shadow as investors fall on themselves to invest millions of naira in their mouth-watering products called portfolios, with the hope of doubling their investments within a few months.
People of letters and professionals like bankers, doctors, civil servants, teachers, accountants and retirees fell into their trap.
By December 2021, Farmforte suddenly stopped capital and ROI, citing “some challenges”.
Two months later, they came out via Zoom call to allay investors’ fears, and that became the last time anyone heard from Osayi and Osayimwense.
They shut down their Lagos office, plants, investors’ accounts and all contacts and literally vanished into thin air with billions of naira of investors’ funds.
A certified accountant, Olukanmi Ayoola, while speaking on Saturday, June 10, said that he is yet to come to terms with how someone like him could fall into the hands of fraudulent young men who conned him of his retirement benefit up to the tune of N21,600,000.
He came out in frustration to tell his story “so that people can be aware and they will not go on to scam other innocent people.”
Even at that, Ayoola could not afford to use his real name in print for the societal and economic backlash.
He said that, “I am a respected person in my community and people come to me for investment advice because I’ve been an accountant all my life.”
The 62-year-old did not have any premonition of what was about to befall him until he was caught in the web of lies and deceit.
He started by putting small amounts into the Agropartnerships digital platform powered by Farmforte and receiving huge profits on his capital as and when due.
Upon receiving his gratuity, Ayoola decided to multiply his investments for bigger profits. Instead, he lost the capital and expected turnover.
Ayoola said that, “I came across Farmforte in 2018 when a friend introduced their product called Farmforte Food Valley to me.
“He told me that they were reliable and responsible and were into agric.
“Then, the government was talking about agriculture and the huge investment that was going into it.
“I picked an interest and began to do an independent investigation.
“I checked out the company’s website and it seemed genuine.
“So, I started with N500,000. I got my money and ROI after one year.
“Thereafter, I decided to increase the money to N1 million, and any time I had excess cash, I would put it in.
“At the same time, I was nearing retirement where I worked. I reasoned that I needed to take a decision now to stand on my own.
“So, I requested for my retirement benefits and was paid. This was in 2019. I retired same year.
“That was how I invested the whole money into the business, which is exportation of agricultural products.
“As a son of a farmer, I know a little about it, that there is huge profit in it.
“Agropartnerships claims to be in agro-processing and export with affiliation to a company in Holland.
“I saw one of tge videos where Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki, commissioned a large expanse of farmland and a cashew processing plant and there were many local farmers saying they had been selling their products to them.
“It was very believable. I also investigated the SEC website and saw that they were duly registered with a registration number.
“On top of that, they had not failed to pay up on due dates on my investments.
“All these gave me confidence that the company was real,” he added
At this point, Ayoola decided to push all his earnings into the business.
He noted that, “I started buying all their products: Poultry 02 Investment, Rice Value Chain, ChickenUp Scale, Palm Oil Processing, Cashew Exporting Scheme, and all sorts of products.
“They were aggressive in the way they advertised their products. Within six hours, if you didn’t invest in it, they would it had sold out. Any reasonable human being would want to invest.
“They were well organised. I call it organised crime.
“I spread my investments in such a way that as one was getting due, another one was starting.
“I invested N21,600,000 of my money and my ROI also runs into millions of naira. I am yet to receive a kobo till date,” he added.
By December 15, 2021, the due date for one of Ayoola’s investments, the proceeds did not come.
He stated that, “I was alarmed at first, but they wrote a letter to me that they were having some challenges and would pay me in due course.
“I immediately went to their office and met other investors who were agitated and needed answers,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a video on Agropartnerships Facebook page on February 16, Osayimwenme said that, “For a fact the delayed circle payout happened due to two major reasons: first, the global chain supply disruption, which impacted on our ability to obtain parts of our machinery for our processing facility.
“Secondly, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on business operation affected us.
“We have taken corrective measure to ensure that this never happens again.
“We appreciate your passion, your endurance, and we take seriously our responsibility to ensure the safety of your investment.
“To this end, we have designed specific payout timeline, and we look forward to sharing this with you on the 18th of February.”
Ayoola further noted that, “Two days later, the company addressed us in a town hall meeting on Zoom, and raised our hopes that we would get our money soon.
“That was the last time we heard from them.
“They closed down their office, shut down their lines and investors’ accounts, and disappeared.”
In addition, a businessman, who also joined the scheme in 2019, said that, “I started investing in the company in 2019, and by late 2021, I had just doubled my investment by N20 million when the problem erupted.
“I was in their office where I met Ayoola and we started sharing notes.
“Because the transactions were done online, individually, and with no access to other investors, we don’t know ourselves or able to share our stories until it was too late,” he added.
Another victim, David, who had invested in three portfolios worth over a million naira with Agropartnerships, has a similar story to tell.
David said that, “I started with N500,000 in April 2021 and received the interest promptly on the due date.
“The ease with which the profits were paid spurred me into opening two additional portfolios with the firm.
”However, things took a different turn when Farmforte stopped paying capital and interest at the end of 2021.
Another investor, Oyinkan, a banker, said that she lost more than a million naira.
Oyinkan siad that, “When I started the investment in April 2021, I would always receive a payment of N50,000 at the end of every three months.
“That was like 10 percent quarterly payment on my capital.
“By the beginning of 2022, when I was supposed to receive my third quarterly ROI, nothing came in for me.
“Since then, the firm has not paid me a dime.
“It is not even certain that I would get my capital back,” she added.
She noted that she was encouraged by the timeliness of the initial profit payment to invest in another product that was on offer by the firm.
“I put N700,000 capital on Agropartnerships’ Poultry 02 Investment, and another N400,000 capital on thefirm’s Rice Value Chain.
“The only ROI I got was N72,000 on both investments.
“I am concerned that we have seen different patterns like this before, where the CEOs run off with investors’ billions.
“This is Nigeria; I have seen huge investments disappear,” she added.
Lawal Seyi, another investor, related how he lost out after investing N96,000 in the firm’s Poultry 02 plan in 2001, and N250,000 in its Cashew Value Chain in January 2021.
A visit to Agropartnerships’ Instagram page showed the enormity of investment funds which have been stolen from innocent investors.
It is filled with comments from angry investors swindled of their funds, and they are in hundreds.
Their Facebook account shows hundreds of investors bemoaning their losses.
On their Twitter and Instagram pages, there are hundreds more who are yet to come to terms with the fact that their monies were gone.
Osayimwense, during the Zoom meeting with investors, claimed that the firm had over 60,000 subscribers with 20,000 paid off.
If his words were to be taken seriously, 40,000 investors must have lost various degrees of capital and interest, translating to billions of naira.
Also, from the investors’ explanation, there is a clear pattern in Farmforte’s operation.
It was able to hoodwink investors with a promise of unbelievable Returns on Investment (ROI).
Ayoola corroborated the notion, saying that, “At times they would say 15 percent or 26 percent and up to 40 percent depending on the duration of the investment.
“One year’s investment could attract 46 percent. It is normally graduated and it goes on like that.”
Another pattern is to spur unsuspecting investors with prompt payments to make them commit enormous capital.
He noted that, “Initially, I was getting my returns exactly on due dates. They would be the ones to even call me to check my wallet, that money had been deposited there.
“They were so professional about it and that is why I put my life savings into it.
“I did not know they were merely setting me up.
“I’ve lost everything. I can’t buy fuel in my car. My children are out of school.
“What kind of country are we in? You cannot invest, you cannot trust anybody.
“I have petitioned the Economic and Finances Crimes Commission (EFCC) with evidence several times, but I did not get any reply.
“I don’t think the government is doing anything about this matter.
“These people are fraudsters, and if they are not brought to book, they will return again with another name and company.
“We are calling on the EFCC to investigate this case and bring Osayi and Osayimwense to book,” he added.
Ayoola, father of three undergraduates, added that, “I can’t fend for them or provide for their needs in school.
“My wife, who works in a ministry, is the one helping out now. That is what is keeping me going.
“I should be enjoying years of labour in retirement, but I still hustle to make ends meet. I am in pain.”
Ayoola further noted that investors’ money trapped in Farmforte would be in excess of N2 billion.
He said that, “I have over N20 million with the company. I’ve met other people that have invested more than that.
“Imagine the thousands of people who have invested millions.
“This company cannot be allowed to go scot-free or allow other Nigerians to suffer this problem,” he added.
Ayoola said that if he had not printed out his investment details on his account in December 2021, the only proof that he and most other investors would have of their dealings with the firm would be the email addresses they were assigned at the point of registration.
He noted that, “Now, you cannot log into your account, thereby erasing all the dealings you had with them. They planned all these from the beginning.”
Meanwhile, a new dimension was introduced into the matter on March 11, 2022 when the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sealed off Farmforte’s office.
According to a statement issued SEC, Farmforte “is one of the companies sealed for engaging in fund management-related investment activities without proper registration.”
Claims on Agropartnerships’ website that all their portfolios were insured by Leadway Assurance Plc also proved to be another lie.
While Farmforte, the parent company of Agropartnerships, is under Leadways’ Agri-Techpartnership, Agropartnerships is not.
Even for Farmforte, very few of the products they dealt in were insured.
The company’s former human resource manager, Seyi Soremekun, recently confirmed that Osayi and Osayimwense defrauded the company.
Soremekun said that, “I left the company in 2021 when the owners began to cut corners.
“They became evasive and stopped paying the salaries of staff in June 2021.
“I had to leave them because I did not see a good ending in the way they were running the company.
“I received calls from investors every day.
“If I had not left long before the problems started, I would have been culpable too,” he added.
Soremekun reasoned that the CEOs ran the company aground.
An email to Andre Schaap, former CEO of Farmforte Europe, their parent company, also turned up valuable information on the fraudsters and how they ran the company.
André Schaap said that, “That my name came up during the investigation is not strange, as I was the CEO of Farmforte Europe BV.
“I was in Nigeria many times at the Farmforte head office and advised them in the development of the farming operations.
“This is regarding the packaging and processing of products that were grown at the farm in Benin City.
“I know that all the phone numbers are not working anymore from Farmforte Agro Allied and From Farmforte Europe BV.
“I left the company in March 2021 as I was not paid for several months, and I did not want to continue anymore.
“There was such an issue with the trust of the brothers (Osayi and Osayimwense), as I was not ever even notified that anything was not going the right way.
“Farmforte Europe BV is still at the address in Meppel but fully abandoned and there is no staff working there anymore. The company is on the edge of bankruptcy.
“Farmforte Europe BV was set up for different reasons, and not as a scam!
“The first was to develop an access market into the EU for sweet potatoes that were grown on a farm near BeninCity.
“The second was to develop products that were made from sweet potatoes like sweet potato beer and sweet potato crisps, sweet potato fries, sweet potato flower, etc.
“The third reason was to organise an off-take of processed cashew nuts in Nigeria.
“The fourth was to build an organisation that was able to sell fruits and vegetables that were grown in Africa and other countries in theworld.
“The fifth and last was to build a market for African food products like fufu and gari, etc, and to export and distribute these from Nigeria and other African countries through the Netherlands into the supermarkets in the EU.
“The announcement on the 15th of December 2021 to the investors came for me as thunder and lightning, totally unexpected as a huge surprise.
“Suddenly, they announced that they could not pay investors funds with interest that they should pay that date.
“Six days before that, they were in Holland and did not ever mention there were any problems
“Looking back, I think the company was set up with the best of intentions.
“However, it was mismanaged by the owners and things could have gone totally differently with different decisions,” he added.
To put a nail in the coffin, Schaap said that the CEOs are somewhere abroad living large with investors’ funds and unpaid salaries of workers, suppliers and builders.
He said that, “I am quite sure the owners are not the losers in the whole story, and they are still having a very good life living outside Nigeria.
“The people that suffered were the employees that were not paid for months of the labour they did put in, the investors that lost their money, as well as some suppliers that lost money.
“For example, the building company that did the construction.
“I hope this gives you some insight into what has happened.”
It is apparent that Osayi and Osayimwense have bolted with billions of naira put in their trust, and investors are not the only ones gnashing their teeth.
Scores of employees, suppliers and builders are also writhing in pain for ripping them out of their daily living.
