The Port Harcourt Zonal office of the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has assured scores of investors of Bluekey Investment Club across the Niger Delta of diligent investigations.
The assurance was made on Thursday, October 31, 2019 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State by the Head, Cyber Crime Section of the Port Harcourt’s Zonal Office of the EFCC, Mr. Allison James, while addressing some protesters that besieged the Zonal Office seeking the refund of their investments in the company. According to him, the EFCC is not holding Bluekey’s depositors funds but would ensure that thorough investigations are done into the activities of the company.
“We started the investigations of Bluekey Investment Club because we believe that its activities were questionable . We stepped in to protect investors’ interests. Your money is not in the custody of EFCC. There are more than 4000 investors and people have invested N4billion. There are so many variables involved but we would ensure that diligent investigations are done”, he said.
The protesters converged at the entrance of the Zonal office and carried placards bearing inscriptions like: “Suanu, Bluekey Refund Our Money”; “EFCC, Save Us From Bluekey”; “Refund Investors, We Are Crying Out For Help”, “Save Innocent Investors From Accruing Debts, Bluekey!”. One of the protesters, Leo Ativie, appealed to the EFCC to refund investors money locked in Bluekey’s accounts, stressing that the investors are ” innocent Nigerians”. Another protester, Stephen Okojie, said that the money invested in the company were borrowed funds.
19 staff of Bluekey Investment Club were on August 30, 2019 arrested in Port Harcourt. The company, operating from Sonia Mall, 42 Woji Road, YKC Junction, Port Harcourt, was registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission( CAC) as a Software Development and General Contracting Firm, but allegedly veered into an interest-yielding Ponzi Scheme with ten percent (10%) weekly returns on investment over (6) Months. The Scheme also promised total returns of invested capital after six (6) Months. Investigations showed that 4000 investors pooled their money in the company with a total investment of N4billion.