11-6-2025
A Federal High Court, sitting in Abuja Wednesday, adjourned hearing of bail application filed by three detained promoters of digital financial platform, Crypto Bridge Exchange in the alleged over one billion dollars fraud until June 30.
Justice Emeka Nwite fixed the date after counsel for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Fadila Yusuf, and the defence lawyers adopted their processes and argued their case for and against the application.
Justice Nwite on April 24 gave the EFCC the go-ahead to arrest and detain six operators of CBEX over their involvement in defrauding several unsuspecting Nigerian investors of hundreds of thousands of dollars by the platform.
The judge, who gave the order after the EFCC’s lawyer, Ms Yusuf, moved an ex-parte motion to the effect, said the detention would be pending until the conclusion of investigation of the alleged offences and possible prosecution.
The six suspects include Adefowora Abiodun Olanipekun, Adefowora Oluwanisola, Emmanuel Uko, and Seyi Oloyede. Others are Avwerosuo Otorudo and Chukwuebuka Ehirim as 1st to 6th defendants respectively.
In the motion ex-parte dated and filed April 23 by Ms Yusuf, the anti-graft agency gave four grounds for its application.
She said the EFCC has a statutory duty of prevention and detection of financial crimes through investigation.
Ms Yusuf said that “the defendants are at large, and a warrant of arrest is required to arrest the defendants for proper investigation and prosecution of this case.”
Adefowora Abiodun (1st defendant), Avwerosuo Otorudo (5th defendant) and Chukwuebuka Ehirim (6th defendant) had been in the EFCC’s custody on investigation.
The EFCC, in the affidavit in support of the motion ex-parte, said sometime in April 2025, it received an intel bordering on an alleged investment scheme fraud against the defendants.
It alleged that the defendants and their company, ST Technologies International Limited, using another company, Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX), perpetrated the alleged fraud and the case was received and assigned to its cybercrimes section for investigation.
The agency said the preliminary investigation into the intel revealed the following: “That Messrs.Adefowora Abiodun Olanipekun, Adefowora Oluwanisola, Emmanuel Uko and Seyi Oloyede, using their company ST Technologies International Limited, promoted another company Crypto Bridge Exchange (CBEX) by making advert and lured unsuspecting members of public to invest crypto currencies on CBEX investment platform.”
The EFCC averred that the defendants promised unrealistic return on investment of up to 100%.
“That the victims were made to convert their digital assets into a stable coin of USDT for onward deposit into the suspects crypto wallet. That the victims were initially given full access to the platform to monitor their investment. That following deposits valued at over one billion dollars by the victims, the CBEX investment platform became inaccessible to them, and they could no longer withdraw from the investment made. That the victims later discovered that the said scheme is a scam. That during investigation, it was discovered that the said ST Technologies International Limited, though registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission, was not registered with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) for investment purposes. That it was also discovered during investigation that the defendants had moved out of their last known address in Lagos and Ogun states.” NAN