BENIGNANT FORTE | The Smiling Vicious Devourer

2020, I was going through economic anxiety and it was a situation that I never talked about. While I was doing some freelance jobs, it just wasn't enough. I recall going to a few person's inboxes to ask for help, one even called to be sure that my account wasn't hacked.

Saving my money in the bank wasn't helping issues, I was looking for where I can invest money and get returns. Is anything wrong with the idea of investing money to get returns? Absolutely no! People spend money in business so that they can earn profits. Is that not so?

Sometimes, when an investment goes south, the investors are often blamed and tagged as foolish. Who hasn't made a wrong investment before? Who hasn't bought products that didn't sell before? I remember some years back when I used my entire savings to self-publish a book. I had high hopes but it didn't sell. I moved on. Was I foolish? No! Would I have made a better decision if I had done more due diligence? Of course but not everyone knows how to do some of these assessments.

Last year, I was also doing free consulting for certain people on investments, mostly my relatives. Usually, they would call me to help them do due diligence on the company they wanted to invest in. My predictions to date were 90% accurate. I remember telling one of my cousins that investing in MBA Forex is a huge risk; if not for anything but for the products that they are offering.

Towards the end of last year, I decided to sign up with Benignant Forte not merely because I saw people I trusted promoting it but because after some checks, they had some verifiable claims about being into real estate, haulage, oil and gas and other businesses.

Benignant Forte wasn't my choicest though but they had packages that would accommodate anyone including very low-income earners. Instead of putting the little money I had in the bank where I could access it anytime, I felt that Benignant Forte would be a kind of "piggy bank" for me.

The ROI wasn't outrageous like most Ponzi schemes. It wasn't a Ponzi scheme where one is required to bring other people before they can be paid. There was an MOU and other things to boost one's trust in this scheme.

I started with a little money and kept topping up. As promised, I was getting my monthly ROI without having to remind them. It was as though the whole thing was automated but as each day passed by, I began having some doubts, I started asking some questions. This was after I had recommended the organisation to some other persons.

The chairman of this business was known for giving away money on social media or so he claimed. He would announce he'd be giving one million naira to someone with a satisfying business plan. Whether he eventually gets to select a winner or not we don't get to know but the usual announcements made it seem like he was truly helping people.

Some giveaways truly happened though. This was going to endear more people to him coupled with the fact that he breathe and talk "Christianese". This was the same trend with most chairmen of investment companies that went down the drain.

He also had several Christian programmes he would sponsor in Abuja with A-rated gospel artists on the flyers which leaves one to wonder, where does he get the money for all of these things? We knew there was a lot of money in his hands but we also knew that all of this money were people's investments, so where exactly was he getting money to sponsor these things since he was also supposed to be issuing monthly ROI to his investment subscribers?

Just a speculation, perhaps solely sponsoring Christian events is also a way to get people into the investment schemes. The moment they see " he loves God", then they feel "we can trust him". The Church platform would also be used as a means of promotion for the business.

Then came his wedding! It Was the talk of the town with just the wedding cake running into millions of Naira, very expensive decoration with celebrities billed to be at the event. This wedding was what broke the ice for me. I knew something was wrong and I stopped recommending Benignant Forte to people. I had also long gotten my capital back and I didn't go ahead to reinvest because I was becoming more sceptical about it.

Should we talk about the first anniversary of this organisation? The Chairman explored different European countries and even claimed to have opened offices there. He registered the business in these countries which wasn't a good sign for me. But, wasn't that supposed to be good news? Let me tell you why I was worried.

Being an organisation that runs an investment scheme, it raises eyebrows as to what their plans are. One has more chances of becoming a citizen by investing a certain amount of money in that country. While that may not be the case, it seems very likely that he was setting the stage for escape.

The company was registered in Ireland as Benignant Forte International Limited on the 7th of July 2021 with 28-32 Pembroke Street Upper, Dublin 2, Dublin, Ireland as a partial address. As an Irish company shares its Eircode with at least 96 other companies.

It's worthy to note that Benignant Forte and other similar businesses that have registered their businesses outside Nigeria didn't register as investment company and they only carry out their crowdfunding activities in Nigeria while diverting the money using their foreign businesses. Benignant Forte International Limited's principal activity is listed as "Business and Other Management Consultancy Activities".

With the constant giveaway or what he made us believe he was doing and the lavish spending using funds entrusted to him by people, in less than one year of existence as a business, one wouldn't be very shocked with the collapse.

The Benignant chairman claimed the business didn't fold, that they only stopped the investment arm. If that is the case, why can't investors continue to receive their ROI until the agreed period? Why can't businesses flow as usual except for new investors being onboarded?

As "Christianese" as Mr Philip Akor, the chairman appears, he is a disappointment. A few days to the day he ended the investment arm, Benignant did a promo that could get a lot of people including low-income earners onboarded. The promo was designed to attract all manner of investors and it paid off.

All of a sudden, there was a sharp change in the plan where the organisation claimed that they won't be accepting any more investment while ensuring that those who already invested will continue to receive their ROI. Some people felt bad because they thought they have been denied an opportunity to invest not knowing that they are just very lucky!

In less than 48 hours, they announced that those who invested previously will get their capital back before the end of 12 months and won't be getting their monthly ROI as designed. It was announced with a lot of "don't panic, let's pass-through this phase together" words. This was where everyone got the memo.

While many beneficiaries of his giveaway stood by him, others were pleading for their money. Some victims fainted, some became hopeless and I got messages from people who invested millions of Naira in the scheme. Why run a promo and then suddenly stop the scheme indefinitely just a few days later? Isn't that criminal?

In a live broadcast, Mr Philip Akor tried whooping up public sentiment by trying to show his audience how sick he was and how he is receiving medical attention. Not in the hospital but in an exotic apartment that many of his investors cannot afford.

Let's assume he was sick. What has it got to do with the investment scheme his organisation was running? He also did mention SEC and posted a screenshot but that still doesn't shed light on any tangible reason why people should stay calm. Running a crowdfunding campaign and closing off the scheme in three days affecting those who already invested looks much like a scam.

This is just history repeating but in a more organised way. Every time such a thing has happened, it usually involves good looking, enterprising, Church-loving, Pastor-endorsed and self-proclaimed entrepreneurs. They all use the same pattern; the mix of Christianese words and business together.

Meanwhile, let us leave Pastor out of this! If anyone scammed you, it is Mr Philip Akor and not Pastors who saw in his events. However, Pastors too must start doing due diligence before endorsing anything.

The next thing we expect to hear is that Mr Philip Akor has escaped the country. Who even knows if the live broadcast was done in Nigeria? Families are broken, lives are shattered, friends are turned against themselves and of course, the fine man has probably dealt with another set of "magas" and guess what? Life will move on.

If this isn't enough to tell Nigerians that no one else should be in charge of their finances in the name of investment because the Nigerian system guarantees no security, then we'll have to wait for history to repeat itself yet again.