The mother of Gbenga Favour Olaoye-Akanbi, a 300-level student of the University of Ilorin, who committed suicide having been duped to the tune of N300m in a forex deal, has said he killed himself because he couldn't bear the disgrace of his pictures being circulated on Instagram as a fraudster.
It was reported how Olaoye-Akanbi poisoned himself to death on Sunday after he was duped of over N300 million belonging to his colleagues and friends by a forex trader, Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel (ECG).
Trouble reportedly started for the 19-year-old student when the returns from the N300 million refused to come at the expected time.
Those who invested with the deceased were said to have circulated his pictures on different social media platforms, tagging him a 'thief, fraudster and scammer.'
"This guy in this picture called Jasper is a scammer. I have been paying to his Opay account and reinvesting my capital until he scammed us off our money. Na God go judge am. He was proudly telling us that he has back up funds that's enough to pay everyone and he later tells us that he has turned the money into crypto. He has given us stupid excuses since June," one of the posts read.
Reacting, Olaoye-Akanbi's mother, in a phone conversation with one of his friends, claimed he became depressed and resorted to committing suicide.
She said those her son was trying to help turned against him.
The woman said, "What the students want to happen has happened. I begged him to come back home, but he was very callous. He was the only one I have. I don't know what happened to him within the last three days.
"I still called him three days ago, and he responded very well, what was he thinking of? Now that he has killed himself, will all those who posted him on Instagram get their money back? Is that the solution? He was making a move to raise the money; he released all his savings. Was he a thief? Was it intentional?
"I told him to come home; he said he didn't want them to come and arrest me. He said he didn't want people to embarrass me. Am I not embarrassed now? They have started making a mockery of me, that I called myself a pastor. But I still can't believe it. This boy tried to satisfy everybody, but they turned against him.
"He was everything I have; he wanted to make me happy. He was the only person that could make me laugh. I called all those pressuring him to give him time. It is well with my life; wherever he is, it's well with him. If I come back to this world again, it is Favour or nobody. Favour is my life; he is my everything."
The 19-year-old student was said to have invested over N300 million, belonging to his colleagues and friends, in a business run by ESG.
Speaking on the incident, a friend of the deceased and an investor with the firm explained how they were duped.
He 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 officials, he was released. So over time, people with ESG as investors( they had borrowed money to invest) were now being pressurized to repay the loan they took. I am one of the investors; we were under a lot of pressure to pay up. So I think because of this guy's age, he is just 19-year-old, he couldn't withstand the pressure and committed suicide."
The deceased's coursemate said he assured them that forex was not a Ponzi scheme and that he had back up funds, much enough to pay every one of his investors their capital and profits even if things went wrong.
"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 mentioned one Eseka Chuckwutem Gospel as his boss. He told us they were arrested together, but that our money was safe with him.