Nnamdi Chukwu (not real name), a Lagos-based businessman, invested N15 million belonging to him and his cousin into Payfarmer in 2020, but when he did not get his yield on the agreed date, he joined a group of owed co-investors who got in touch with Bamidele Alimi, Payfarmer’s owner, in 2021.

However, despite an agreement of a repayment plan with the group, Alimi still escaped with their money.

Chukwu told EQ that Alimi owned two companies, one Dele Fresh Nigeria, the other Payfarmer.

“Payfarmer was the company that was running this investment stuff, and Delefresh was the agriculture company that I guess was owned by the same guy which he uses to supply different other customers,” he told EQ.

“I understand he was supplying chicken to Mr Biggs, KFC and the likes.”

The investment scheme, according to Chukwu’s explanations, was a “a nine-month investment similar to Agrotech Finance”.

“At the end of that nine months, you would get a 15 per cent return on your investment,” he said.

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“I did not receive any returns, dividends or my money back at the end of the agreed contract duration and up until today.”

Chukwu’s Investment with payfarmer– N10 million

Chukwu’s Investment- N5 million

EQ found on the Corporate Affairs Commission website that both Delefresh and Payfarmer were CAC-registered, but while the former is ‘active’, the latter is currently ‘inactive’.

Delefresh Nigeria Limited

Payfarmer

EQ also found that Bamidele Alimi’s LinkedIn account is currently inactive.

Chukwu told EQ that he discovered a Nairaland post which directed him to a WhatsApp group of investors.

“I was added to a group of similar investors sometime in 2021 who decided to come together as a group to try to recover our funds or see how to manage the issues with the company,” he said.

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“It was after I joined this group that I discovered that the money owed other investor amounted to over N400 million.

Through the investors’ combined efforts, the police arrested Alimi.

“We paid the police and they mobilized some men and they drove to the location in Epe. They arrested some of the people working at the place so as to fish out the owner,” he told EQ.

“Few days later, Alimi went to the station to bail his workers and they detained him. He had to get a surety, and they took his international passport. The agreement we had with him, the police and the surety was that he would come up with a repayment plan to return all our funds to us.”

The repayment agreement

Chukwu and others waited patiently for more than a year but they did not receive anything.

“I understand that his international passport and other documents have been returned to him. There is no update on the surety he provided. They could not keep him detained, and they asked us to go to court.

“Seems Alimi had connections with both the government and the police and therefore there were no actions, no repercussions coming out of all our activities.”

The group also explored employing a debt recovery firm but all the efforts only proved futile.

EQ tried various means to reach out to Bamidele Alimi, but he did not reply calls and messages to his business and personal lines.
The post How Payfarmer’s Bamidele Alimi Vanished With Investors’ N400m After Police Freed Him and Told Them to ‘Go to Court’ appeared first on Foundation For Investigative Journalism.