A Nigerian man, Dickson Nonso Onuchukwu, has sued the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the Inspector-General of Police and the Lagos Police Commissioner for alleged defamation of character, harassment and unlawful detention.
Onuchukwu, who said he was just a customer, was one of the Nigerians arrested alongside a Russian by the EFCC officials over their alleged involvement in a Ponzi scheme called Swiss Golden International, which defrauded thousands of Nigerians of their hard earned savings.
Onuchukwu, who is seeking N1 billion as damages from the security agencies, was paraded with one Augustine Emenike and a Russian, Max Lobaty, as the faces behind Swiss Golden International Company.
According to him, he was first arrested by the EFCC at his office Swiss Golden Africa in Ikeja sometime last November. He noted that he had provided documentary evidence to the agency that he was not an affiliate of Swiss Golden International.
Onuchukwu insisted that was also a customer like those complaining that they were defrauded. He added that the difference was that he took the business seriously and had been networking and growing in it.
He said he was harassed, arrested and unlawfully detained by operatives of the Federal Criminal Investigation and Intelligence, Alagbon, Ikoyi, between March 5-6th, 2018 at Area F Ikeja before taken to Alagbon where he bailed himself; the EFCC kano office from November 6 to 17, last year, as well as Zone 2 Onikan Lagos on December 4.
Onuchukwu said the harassment and arrests violated his rights under Sections 34(1), 35(1) and 41(1) of the 1999 constitution as amended.
Through his counsel, Anthony Omaghomi, Onuchukwu in suit FHCL/CS/679/18 prayed a Federal High Court in Lagos to declare the harassment and arrests he was subjected to by the EFCC and Police as unlawful, illegal, oppressive and unconstitutional, adding that they violated his right to dignity, personal liberty and freedom of movement.
Onuchukwu sought an order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents from further arrest, detention, harassment, invitation, parade or malicious prosecution with respect to Swiss Golden International, especially as regards to any claim or business agreement made directly by anybody or group of persons to the foreign company.
He also prayed for a mandatory order compelling EFCC to within 14 days, publish a retraction and an apology of its publication on all its social media pages describing him as a fraudster, which defamed his character and contravened his rights under Section 34(1) of the constitution.
Onuchukwu further prayed the court to nullify EFCC’s directive that he reports to their Lagos and Kano offices every month until he produces Max Lobaty, who is based in Russia and the representative of Swiss Golden International.
He disclosed that he has been a customer of Swiss Golden International for four years and was the second person to discover the online business after his friend Emenike, who registered Swiss Golden Nigeria.
He said,
“The Swiss Golden online business has been moving smoothly until some fraudulent Nigerians joined and started creating deceitful strategies to defraud Nigerians for their own selfish gains.”
Wuzup Naija recalls that on April 16, the anti-graft agency which described the online gold networking business as a Ponzi scheme took to its social media handles to announce that the sum of N216 million was recovered from the company following petitions by some Kano residents that they were defrauded.
Meanwhile, Swiss golden company held an international conference on November 4 and 5, 2017 at Balmoral Event Centre Victoria Island Lagos which was the second Nigerian conference.
The first conference was held in March 4th-5th at the ICC centre Abuja, which Max Lobaty and six other representatives of Swiss Golden International attended.
