The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Monday brought an Abuja-based couple, Osabohein Ologbose and his wife, Hope Oghelemu, before Justice Ekerete Akpan of the Federal High Court in Abuja over an alleged fraud amounting to N740 million.
The duo were arraigned alongside two firms—Onome Global Market Resources Limited and Lexicon Multi-Concept Media Limited—on a seven-count charge. The counts border on obtaining by false pretence, conversion of funds, and money laundering. The offences are said to contravene Section 18(2)(b) and are punishable under Section 18(4) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.
According to the anti-graft agency, the charges state that between January 2023 and April 2024, Ologbose received N340 million in his Kuda Microfinance Bank account. The funds were transferred from an Access Bank account belonging to his wife, “when he reasonably ought to have known that the sum formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act.”
Another charge alleged that he channelled N24.1 million from the same source to set up a music and photo studio located at Crowther Plaza in the Gudu District of Abuja, “when he knew or ought reasonably to have known that the said sum formed part of the proceeds of an unlawful act.”
The commission further told the court that the couple persuaded unsuspecting investors to release money for the supposed procurement and export of bitter kola and red kolanut to Hong Kong, China, and Indonesia, with promises of lucrative returns. Investigations, however, showed that the investors neither received profits nor got refunds of their capital.
At the court session, defence counsel, Marshal Abubakar, urged the court to allow the first defendant to continue enjoying the administrative bail earlier granted to him. He also applied for bail for the third defendant on the ground that she was nursing a one-year-old baby.
In his ruling, Justice Akpan permitted Ologbose to remain on administrative bail. The judge, however, declined the bail request for Oghelemu and ordered that she be remanded at the Suleja Correctional Centre. The matter was adjourned to April 27, 2026, for definite hearing.
The EFCC said the arraignment forms part of its sustained crackdown on individuals and organisations linked to large-scale financial crimes across the country.
The case comes amid other notable fraud probes, including the recent arrest of a Lagos-based couple accused of staging a fake kidnapping to extort N10 million from relatives and associates.
