WorldStage– The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has presented Prosecution Witnesses 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16 before Justice Obiora Egwuatu of the Federal High Court, FCT Abuja in the ongoing trial of Jesam Michael Ubi and Afriq Arbitrage System (AAS), for their alleged involvement in investment fraud.
The witnesses who are victims of Ubi, the first defendant’s arbitrage trading platform, Afriq Arbitrage System, AAS, testified on the loss of their investment capital and promised return on investment.
Led in their testimony by the prosecution counsel, Ekele Iheanacho SAN, PW12, Okoye Eugene, a welder, told the court that he invested in an investment platform called COTPS which crashed.
He disclosed that the first defendant through the investment’s social media group, encouraged him to continue investing even as it became apparent to him that he had been scammed.
He also told the court that it was from the social group the first defendant migrated him and other investors to a telegram group and introduced his arbitrage trading platform AAS to them.
He told the court that he was convinced to invest because the first defendant had told the investors that their money was safe and warehoused in the Binance liquidity pool, where no unauthorised person can access.
He added that the first defendant showed pictures of his wife, children and mother to them on the telegram group to further convince him.
These, he said, gave him the assurance for which he had to invest over $82,000 (Eighty Two Thousand Dollars) on behalf of himself, his friends and families.
The PW12 further told the court that in April 2023, the first defendant told him and other investors that there was a glitch in the system and that as a result they could no longer get Return on Investment, RoI.
However, he stated that he knew that something was wrong after the first defendant told them that a certain Abayomi stole $87,000,000 (Eighty Seven Million Dollars) but that their capital was still intact because he stole from their interest pool and not the capital pool and were assured that they would start getting their RoI.
He further told the court that the first defendant also assured him that he could access his capital within hours once he sent an email to the support team. He regretted that till date, neither interest nor the capital he invested has been made available to him.
Prosecution Witness 13, Salihu Z. Ibrahim, a business man from Auchi, Edo State, who deals in kitchen wares, told the court that he was also given one hundred percent assurance that his investment was safe and that the platform was secured from any form of external breach.
He disclosed that he was also convinced to invest after the first defendant gave assurances of the safety of his money in Binance liquidity pool.
However, he stated that as developments began to take a bad turn in the investment platform and with investors demanding RoI and their capitals, they were forcefully removed from the telegram platform, threatened and even arrested.
He also disclosed that financial figures on the investment platform became manipulated.
Prosecution Witness 14, Johnson Veronica stated that she sold her cars and other properties and invested about $80,000 (Eighty Thousand Dollars) in AAS, adding that since the day she invested, her life has taken a drastic turn for the worse. She told the court that she lost her marriage and all her life savings as a result.
She further told the court that after investing, the first defendant told her that he was going for a liver treatment, claiming that while he was in the hospital, a certain Abayomi, compromised his face and fingerprint biometrics and that of his wife and gained unauthorised access to the funds in the interest pool and stole $87,000,000 (Eighty Seven Million Dollars).
She told the court that she rather suspected foul play from the first defendant because he had told them that not even him, the creator of the platform, could breach it.
Prosecution Witness 15, Ayam Sebastian Chinwendu, a civil servant who also took loans to invest in both the AAS trading platform and a more recent token introduced to investors by the defendant, invested over $3,000 (Three Thousand Dollars) and had since been stranded with no recovery of her funds.
Prosecution Witness 16, Okonkwo Leonard Emeka testified that he was introduced to the platform by his sister and invested over $20,000 (Twenty Thousand Dollars) into the AAS platform and a further $17,000 in the newly floated token with the hope of receiving returns on his investment, but disclosed that from the time of his investment till date, he has neither been paid his initial capital or a return on investment.
“I have put in all I have into this and convinced others to invest and now this is costing me my family. I don’t want the RoI anymore. I just want the money I invested so that I can take care of my family,” he stated.
According to him, he felt bad that even after the first defendant had told them of a certain Abayomi stealing from the interest pool and that they would not get RoI, he wondered why the first defendant went on living an opulent lifestyle, displaying swimming pools with his name them and driving expensive cars while he could not have access to his capital as promised.
All the witnesses confirmed to the court that the trading platform, AAS, could no longer be accessed by the investors.
They also told the court that they did not believe the first defendant used the money invested for arbitrage trading as he assured he would.
The prosecution counsel tendered screenshots of the witnesses’ dashboards and other pages of the investment platforms which were all admitted in evidence by the court.
The case was adjourned till May 14, 2026 for continuation of trial.
