Investment Fraud: Witnesses Tell Court Howthey were Scammed in Afriq Arbitrage System

By JUMOKE SANNI

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on Thursday, April 16, 2026, 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.