{"id":26,"date":"2026-02-17T09:17:38","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T09:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/?p=26"},"modified":"2026-02-17T09:18:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T09:18:47","slug":"couple-firms-arraigned-in-abuja-court-over-alleged-%e2%82%a6740m-bitter-kola-investment-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/?p=26","title":{"rendered":"Couple, Firms Arraigned in Abuja Court Over Alleged \u20a6740m Bitter Kola Investment Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><br>ABUJA \u2014 The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a Nigerian businessman, his wife, and two of their companies before the Federal High Court in Abuja regarding an alleged \u20a6740 million investment fraud.<br>Osabohein Alex Ologbose, CEO of Onome Global Market Resources Limited and Lexicon Multi-concept Media Limited, appeared alongside his wife, Hope Onome Oghelemu, before Justice Ekerete Akpan on Monday. The defendants face a seven-count amended charge involving obtaining money by false pretence, conversion of funds, and money laundering.<br>According to the EFCC, the accused induced members of the public to invest in a purported export business involving bitter kola and red kolanut to Hong Kong, China, and Indonesia, promising high returns that never materialized.<br>Prosecution counsel, O.S. Ujam, informed the court that the defendants allegedly violated the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;The amended charges filed on January 28, 2026, detail how the defendants took possession of over \u20a6340 million paid into a Kuda Microfinance Bank account, knowing, or reasonably ought to have known, that the funds were proceeds of an unlawful act,&#8221; Ujam stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Investigations further revealed that \u20a624.1 million of the alleged fraudulent funds was used to establish a music and photo studio in the Gudu District of Abuja.<br>All defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges.<br>While defence counsel, Marshal Abubakar, requested that the first defendant maintain his existing administrative bail, he sought bail for the third defendant on compassionate grounds.<br>&#8220;I pray the court to grant bail to the third defendant, considering she is currently nursing a one-year-old baby,&#8221; Abubakar pleaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, Justice Akpan declined the bail application for the third defendant, ordering her remand at the Suleja Correctional Centre. The judge permitted the first defendant to continue on his administrative bail.<br>The case has been adjourned until April 27, 2026, for a definite trial hearing.<br><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ABUJA \u2014 The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has arraigned a Nigerian businessman, his<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Compress_20230501_131921_1011.jpg?fit=750%2C451&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions\/28"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quicknewsnigeria.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}