The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, November 7, 2024, presented its second prosecution witness, PW2, Adesola Adeyinka, founder and CEO of Credit PRO Business Limited, in the trial of a couple, Ruth Idowu and Oriyomi Idowu, who are being prosecuted for an alleged N2.7bn fraud before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos.
The defendants are facing 20 counts bordering on obtaining money by false pretence, money laundering, stealing, retention of stolen property and forgery to the tune of N2,757,188,000.00 (Two Billion, Seven Hundred and Fifty Seven Million, One Hundred and Eighty-eight Thousand Naira Only).
They were arraigned on Tuesday, November 28, 2023 by the Lagos Zonal Directorate of the EFCC alongside Food Commodity Processing Enterprise, Bonway Food Processing Company Limited, Samee Idowu Company Limited and Farmex Integrated Companies Limited, which all belong to Ruth Idowu.
Count one reads: “Ruth Sameeha Idowu, a.k.a. Loiry Ventures, Oriyomi Kabeer Idowu, a.k.a. Yocli Ventures, Food Commodity Processing Enterprise, Bonway Food Processing Company Ltd., Samee Idowu Company Limited, Farmex Integrated Companies Limited, between 31st of March 2022 and 17th of May 2023 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves by a false pretence that you had a genuine Local Purchase Order (LPO) from various vendors and with intent to defraud, obtained from Creditpro Business Support Services Ltd the sum of N2,757,188,000.00 (Two Billion, Seven Hundred and Fifty Seven Million, One Hundred and Eighty-eight Thousand Naira Only).”
Another count reads: “Ruth Sameeha Idowu, a.k.a. Loiry Ventures, Oriyomi Kabeer Idowu, a.k.a. Yocli Ventures, Food Commodity Processing Enterprise, Bonway Food Processing Company Ltd, Samee Idowu Company Limited, Farmex Integrated Companies Limited, sometime in 2023 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court, converted the sum of N10,000,000 to purchase a GLK Benz, purchase sum derived from converting the sum of N500,000,000 belonging to Creditpro Business Support Services with the aim of disguising the illegal origin of the funds.”
At Thursday’s proceedings, Adeyinka told the court that he did not know he was dealing with a fake company.
Led in evidence by prosecution counsel, Zeenat Atiku, he said: “Exhibit P1 is an e-mail address. After we had our last meeting where we confronted them with the facts, we resolved amicably. And part of the decision reached was that we should stop interest on accruing balance. We agreed that the balance of N526,340,333 would be paid within the period of six months, with the repayment not less than N50 million.
“I sent this email personally to Mr. Oriyomi Idowu, Ruth Idowu and my team members. Mr. Oriyomi replied, saying, “Duly Noted”.
In his further evidence, he said: “Exhibit P2 is the credit-pro. It was part of the process that payment should go to BUA, which Mrs. Ruth agreed to at the beginning. But she, however, later said it was not advisable and that we should pay to one of the marketing partners. But we didn’t have any reason to doubt her.
“Each time payment was made, we sent e-mail to confirm it. We later got to know that this was being done to mislead us. Mrs. Ruth Appiah Idowu gave us the contacts of the person. But we later realised that they were not real, as they were created to mislead us to think that the fake purchase orders were real. As usual, we confirmed the exhibit P9 given to us by Mrs. Ruth Idowu and sent to the address she gave us. Upon confirmation, we financed it because we believed it was real.”
The PW2 also told the court that his company paid money into Access Bank account between March and June, 2022, in order to mitigate against diversion, adding that “We wanted the money to go to BUA’s account directly. But we later got to know that the food commodity belongs to Mrs. Ruth Idowu”.
He also confirmed exhibit P12 as the WhatsApp between our company, Loiry Ventures and the various companies they were supplying.
“The WhatsApp group, he added, “was created for each company to facilitate smooth transaction. We later discovered that the supposed contact person actually was Ruth Idowu. She was the one talking to us and asking for sugar under the guise that it was their representative. We only got to know after the issue came up.
“When we checked through ‘True Caller,’ her name came up on all the numbers. We thought we were dealing with real companies only to realise they are clone companies. But we were dealing with Loiry Ventures with utmost sincerity.”
The counsel for the first, third, fourth, fifth and sixth defendants, James Alara, and counsel for the second defendant, Babatunde Ogala, SAN, prayed the court for an adjournment for cross-examination of witness.
Thereafter, Justice Dada adjourned the case till January 20, 21, 22, and 23, 2025 for cross-examination.
