The SDP Demands Drastic Measures, Stiffer Legislations, and Regulations To Combat Criminalities of Financial Scams In Nigeria.
Once again, and very sadly, the crashing, last week, of the CBEX, a digital asset platform, which has plunged a huge mass of Nigerians into financial crisis and compounded their economic woes, has further exposed the failure of our regulatory institutions and systems in effectively and efficiently delivering on their statutory mandates.
It is reported that CBEX is a ponzi scheme that deploys artificial intelligence (AI) for trading in crypto and under an agreement of 40-50 days lock-in of assets on an unimaginable offer of a hundred per cent
return on investment in 30 days.
CBEX is said to be a high-yielding ponzi investment platform where investments are strictly made in American dollars, right here in Nigeria!
At the time it completely suspended withdrawals, locked its telegram and dropped the investment and account balances of its unsuspecting users to zero, it had swept away and wired offshore, a collosal sum of 800 million dollars (N1.3 trillion).
The operations of the platform, which came to prominence and got embraced by seekers of easy wealth and quick fixes, not long ago, is not in anyway different from others that have traumatised a large number of Nigerias in the last two decades or thereabouts.
Less than ten years ago, in 2016, we had the bad experience of the Marvodi Mundial Movement, popularly known as MMM, to which Nigerians lost over 18 billion naira.
According to a report by the Security Exchange Commission (SEC) that Nigerians lost over N300 billion in five years to the criminal activities of ponzi schemes, which are nothing but money laundering platforms.
Interestingly, the EFCC has stated that it has commenced investigations into the latest CBEX scam and would be colloborating with the International Criminal Police Organization (InterPol) to get the perpetrators to book. That sounds like a too familiar rhetoric.
The question we should be asking the EFCC, the ICPC, FCPC, and the SEC, is why waiting for Nigerians to be swindled before acting? The activities of CBEX were not hidden; they were operating openly, with physical offices, and was also seen in terms of promoting their services on social media.
The SDP condemns the prevailing wrong orientation of Nigerians, particularly among the youth, to desire quick wealth, immediate gratification, sudden prosperity, and the tendency to explore any source to attain wealth and riches. It also calls for stricter legislations against financial crimes associated with ponzi schemes, while the regulatory agences should up their games in enforcing regulations.
The recently signed Investlments and Security Acts (2025) is considered apt. The Act stipulates a two year jail term and severe penalties of hefty fines, while the SEC, by the Act, has regulatory and prosecution powers over ponzi schemes. How much biting the regulators would do is left to be seen.
Nigerians should no longer be made to bear the brunts of the failure of our public institutions in doing their job.
The National Orientation Agency (NOA) needs to be more alive to its responsibility of sensitising the public on the need for our people, particularly the youth, to imbibe the right and noble values. The agency has a duty to ring the warning bells more loudly to draw the attention of the people to criminal acts that are inimical to their well-being and our national interests in general.
The party calls on the Federal Government to do more in practical terms, to improve the economic conditions of the people, and make life truly meaningful for Nigerians, so as to reduce the tendency of our people becoming easy preys and vulnerable to the criminal activities of financial fraudsters and scamers.
We have had enough of these embarrassing sad commentary of the economic misery of hapless Nigerians being compounded by systemic failures.
Nigeria should not be made to be taken as a lawless country – a banana republic where anything goes.
Araba Rufus Aiyenigba, SDP – National Publicity Secretary
21/4/2025.
