“It has been revealed that hundreds of investors have petitioned Benue State Police Command and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over an alleged case of fraud and mismanagement of over N900m by operators of Denkol Farms, a failed agricultural investment scheme in Makurdi, the Benue State capital.
The aggrieved partners accused three directors of the scheme namely Denison Tsekohol, Fidelia Adasu Agera and Shenge Michael of stashing away their money and attempting to hoodwink them into believing they lost their rice, livestock and groundnut investments to flood in August 2021.
The development is coming in the wake of similar failed Ponzi investments such as Ovaioza Farm Produce Storage Business, Chinmark Group and Eatrich Farms, which has got Nigerians worried about the proliferation of the dubious schemes.
Founded in late 2020, Denkol Farms headquarters is located behind Living Faith Church in Mbaikya area of Makurdi.
The operators had lured thousands of investors via social media promotion in the late 2020 with mouth-watering returns-on-investments.
The PUNCH gathered that the partners were swayed into parting with huge payments running into N850m under a contractual agreement that the company would remit 25% ROI and initial capital at the end of every four months for rice investors while those who released funds for eggs would have their capital released after a year.
Months after the scheme took off, Denison, who has rechristened himself the ‘billionaire farmer’ further created a Whatsapp group where he lured another set of over a hundred partners into coughing up their hard-earned money running into N50m m for Egusi and groundnut storage investment.
He named the storage group ‘Denkol Farmers Cooperative Society Limited.’
Investors’ money lavished on parties, frivolities
As the business platform flourished, the expectant investors watched helplessly as some anomalies began to play out.
In the second quarter of 2021, two of the co-owners – Denison and Shenge – were reported to have had lavish weddings with guests leaving the party with enviable souvenirs.
As the tension mounted, the billionaire farmer was said to have also ordered an estimated N40m rice processing machine without consulting with his investors.
A source told our correspondent that being the sole signatory to Denkol Farm’s account, Denison went on a spending spree that saw him establish a multi-million naira make-up studio for his young bride, Zuleikha Ishaq, beside Empire Suites, a popular hotel, along David Mark bypass in the heart of Makurdi.
“He also opened a shop for his mother, invested heavily in his father’s farm and bought several lands in Apir area all in the name of an estate within the space of five months,” he said.
According to him, Denison’s father, Tsekohol Atibee, has become the toast of other farmers in his Ikorgbajr community in the Gwer East Local Government Area of the state.
The straw that finally broke the camel’s back came in the third quarter of 2021 when Denkol Farms started defaulting until it discontinued the payment of RoI to her investors.
Investors seek explanation to alleged scam
The development led to an outrage, especially from people who were long overdue to cash out from their investment.
One of such investors, Obasi Elijah, lamented his misfortune “Why did he keep collecting money from unsuspecting investors up till September? I still paid in N1.2m as of 20th September when it was obvious he has been having issues from July.”
“I have millions there just like many others who invested their school fees and house rents. But Denison kept on collecting even way beyond September, despite knowing he had problems.”
Denison was, initially, quick to attribute the problem to sun-drying challenges and disease outbreaks among his livestock in an email that he wrote to the partners on 13th October 2021.
The email read, “Dear investor, sincerely, we apologise for the delay in paying your due cash out. Those who have been with us for some time can attest to our prompt payment, we paid within 24 hours to 72 hours.
“Considering the nature of our business which is agro-trading commodities and the state of the economy post COVID, we are faced with a few challenges. At our rice processing section, we are having difficulties in sun-drying our parboiled rice due to consistent rainfall, this has been the case for a few months now.
“This has brought about a delay in meeting up with customers’ orders. From our pig section, we had disease infestation on the farm that led to the mortality of our mature pigs, this made us sell off our pigs at a lower rate in order not to have a total loss.
“We can’t just sit and complain about our losses or difficult days. We have mapped out plans to recover from our losses and to continue making sales to enable us to pay our investors as promptly as possible.
“The festive season is here, by next month, Christmas and New Year rice orders will start coming in, which we hope will help us clear the pending cash-outs. We know it’s wrong to give excuses at this critical time,
“We understand you invested with a project in mind, especially for your personal needs, We can not lie to you and hide these facts from you. We only plead for more understanding and patience as you have been in the past. We apologise for the inconveniences this may cause you and we are deeply sorry.”
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