MMM: Fear Heightens Over Relocation Of Top Guider, As Another Victim Commits Suicide

Ugorji

Nigerian participants in the Mavrodi Mondial Moneybox (MMM) Ponzi scheme are not taking lightly the news of the alleged relocation to the Philippines, the nation’s number one guider, Chuddy Ugorji, allegedly due to the continued troubles with the scheme.


The development has heightened the participants’ fear that the scheme may not survive the current downtime, forcing many to develop one problem or the other, including a mother of two in Benue State, Mrs. Gloria Samson, who reportedly committed suicide as a result of her inability to recoup her N400,000 investment in the scheme. News had filtered in, last week, that Ugorji, Nigeria’s leading participant in the scheme with more than one million followers, and his newly married wife, Amaka, had relocated to the Philippines.

And unlike in the past when he had, through his Facebook page, denied the report, Ugorji has failed to reply to all queries sent to his Facebook page about the journey and has not been seen participating in the scheme’s activities for more than five days now.

According to a guider and student of Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho, who craved anonymity, the fact of Ugorji’s relocation from Nigeria is nothing but the truth. But he refused to blame him for any member’s plight. The source explained that with more than a million followers, both Ugorji and another leading guider, who he identified simply as Yinka, have made billions of naira from the scheme because they started it in the country. The source said: “We all understand the situation with MMM and only the deluded can be hopeful that they would recoup their whole investment. That is simply impossible.

So, what I am doing for my followers now is to continue to play by the rule and see if we could recoup some. “I have more than 600 followers and during my training to become a guider, my mentor strongly advised that we should venture into the scheme with spare money. So, where is Ugorji’s fault there? We learnt he travelled to avoid being lynched by angry participants.” Another participant and a health worker in Lagos, said she was unlucky to have invested about N200,000 in the scheme just before the crisis started.

She said: “Immediately I learnt the guy has travelled, I knew it was over for MMM in Nigeria. I know of some people who are in big mess for investing much money, which does not even belong to them. It is a big mess I must tell you.”

A medical doctor with Ladoke Akintola University Teaching Hospital (LAUTECH) in Osogbo, Dr. Lekan Bello, said he no longer visits the site because he knows it was over for the scheme. “I have little money there, but it is unfortunate that I could fall into the trap. But life continues and that has been my advice for those members I know who have developed health challenges as a result of the scheme.”

The body of Mrs. Samson, 34, was said to have been recovered from River Benue by the Police after her husband, Mr. David Samson, had lodged a complaint with the police that his wife was missing.

The state’s Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Moses Yamu, who confirmed the development, said investigation into the circumstances surrounding her death has already commenced, adding that the corpse has since been buried by her family. Investigation by New Telegraph had revealed that Mrs. Samson had reportedly taken loans from four microfinance banks in December and invested the whole money in MMM scheme with the hope of getting huge returns. But few days after investing the money, the scheme announced its freeze. From some of her neighbours, New Telegraph gathered that when she was leaving the house on the fateful day before her death, she was said to have asked for forgiveness from her two children.

“She also sent the children to plead with their dad on her behalf to forgive her,” a neighbour, who craved anonymity, told New Telegraph. But according to her husband, he was aware that his wife took loans, but stated that he cannot say exactly whether she actually invested it in MMM. “Towards November and December 2016, I discovered she took loans from four different places amounting to over N400,000, but I don’t know what she actually did with the money because this time, there was nothing in the shop to suggest that she invested the money into her business, but truly she took loans,” he said.

New Telegraph