Lawyer charges EFCC to fast track fraud case against suspect

A Lagos-based lawyer, Blessing Ahmed has charged the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to urgently firm up investigations and charge to court the Chief Executive Officer of Farm4Me Agricultural Limited and Viable X Agricultural Business, Mr. Adama J. Adama, over alleged fraud and illegal diversion of investor’s funds.

According to the lawyer, his clients, Oak and Timber Resources Limited and its directors, Uzoma Ofong and Onyinye Ofong, were invited by Adama to invest in his agricultural business on June 15, 2020 and promised a return on their investment.

Subsequently, the couple met physically with the companies’ representative, Mr. Adama and his staff in their Lagos office and visited their farm in Benue State.

They also exchanged telephone conversations, WhatsApp messages and other correspondences to establish a business relationship.

The couple, she said, sourced for funds from associates and invested over N600 million on different investment plans, which was paid into Viable X Agribusiness Ltd account and Farm4Me Agricultural Business account.

The investment plan eventually matured to N873 million but was not paid by Adama.

The matter, Ahmed said, has been with the EFCC for a while now, with the anti-graft agency promising to charge the matter to court to no avail.

She lamented that it’s been over 12 months since that promise was made.

Ahmed suggested that the anti-graft agency might be foot-dragging on the matter because the suspect is a politician of the All Progressives Congress (APC) party, stressing that nobody should be above the law.

She said she was torn emotionally whenever she saw the couple weeping over the likelihood of not getting justice, while the politician strutted about town, allegedly boasting of being influential and untouchable.

Ahmed wondered why the matter had become a hard nut to crack for the EFCC, such that it has lingered for no reason.

She said that the suspect obtained her clients’ funds under false pretence of a phantom agricultural investment, and has gone underground and incommunicado, since the maturity of their investments.

She demanded that the matter be charged to court so that justice could be served to the investors, including her own client.

The victim, Onyinye said: “Imagine how Adama destroyed my relationship of 25 years with many of my friends, church members and family members. They are calling me a liar, writing to my church where I had been worshipping for years, that I am a fraud. Imagine people coming to my house to create scenes.

“My only brother, who put millions into this investment was diagnosed with cancer and couldn’t access money to treat it until he died.

“My husband and I are battling with ill health too and no money for medication. To feed is difficult. It is people that assist us with money to pay school fees now. Those we took money from are going through this same mental and emotional torture,” she lamented.

Onyinye pleaded with the EFCC to help her get justice as Adama has blocked their numbers and closed down his offices in Lagos and Abuja.

“Let justice be served so that my husband and I and other people whom we collected money from can regain our lives,” she pleaded.

It was gathered that Adama had earlier been invited by the EFCC, where he admitted collecting money from the couple and promised to pay.

He was also said to have paid a bit of the money, but had gone back to his politicking.