Johnson Alayande, a part-time secondary school teacher, has told FIJ how Quintessential Limited, an investment company, took N1.4 million out of his life savings.

Alayande explained that he was introduced to the company in July 2020 by a friend who had been with the company for a year. 

The Ibadan man told FIJ that he made his investment capital deposit in July 2020 and was given options from which he chose to invest in two categories, N1 million in one and N200,000 in the other.

According to the deed of agreement on the investment, a copy of which was made available to FIJ, Quintessential Investment pledged 25 percent return on investment at maturity

“I invested the money to cater for my family. I wanted to get a car for transportation business and open a small business for my wife,” Alayande told FIJ.

Alayande said issues arose with his investment mid February 2021, when he was told the company’s director was being arraigned in court for inability to repay investors’ monies as and when due.

The part-time mathematics teacher explained that his investment had accumulated to N1.7 million.

In November 2022, Alayande demanded his money, but the marketer who introduced him to the scheme told him to exercise patience as the company’s chairman, Joshua Kayode, was still in court

FIJ’s efforts to reach out to Kayode were unsuccessful, as calls to his phone were not answered. Messages sent to him were also not attended to.

FIJ found that in August 2021, Kayode was arraigned in court for allegedly defrauding 170 people to the sum of N10.8 billion.

Kayode, reported to be 22 years old at the time, was admitted to bail in the sum of N2 billion by Justice Nicholas Oweibo, the Lagos State High Court judge who heard the case

Olakunle Ogundimu, the company marketer who brought Alayande into the scheme, told FIJ when contacted that he had no knowledge of Kayode’s whereabouts. He, however, revealed that in his last conversation with him, the CEO told him he made huge losses in his forex trading, which affected the company’s investment system.

“He was later picked by the Alagbon Police Headquarters because of several petitions that were written against him. I have my personal money, as well as my family’s, in the scheme,” Ogundimu said