In 2020, Miebi Bribena a Bayelsa born business man conceived the idea of a multipurpose cooperative society called Baraza. The idea was to receive financial deposits from the public by waving and dangling mouth-watering interest ranging from 15 percent to 25 percent monthly; claiming that he was trading with investor’s fund in forex, in interest rate that is as far above conventional banks and the Central Bank of Nigeria.
The 15 and 25 percent interest offered was quite tempting in a state being ravaged by high poverty index. Customers did not only invest their hard-earned money but also believed that the chief executive officer of the platform, Miebi Bribena, widely known as a pastor in the cerebral Christ Embassy Church in Yenagoa, would guarantee the safety of their investment. This toga was exactly what attracted the public to the investments platform and secured investors’ confidence in him. Nevertheless, a good number of people had strong misgivings about the business offer because of the collapse of such platforms in the past like the Umana-Umana saga in Port Harcourt, MBA, where huge funds of investors were trapped.
He operated for barely one year circle using old investors money to entice and pay new investors to attract more people to the platform
Like the Prophets of old, those who expressed doubt were laughing that it was a question of marking time; that it would certainly crash and that the Day of Judgment was simply reckoning.
In March 2021, the first danger signal became ominous when the Bribena led management announced suspension of further intakes to what it described as to regularize existing investors.
In the same March 2021, it halted the monthly payment of 25% returns and further announced a three-month suspension of payment to allow it to recover.
The signal of a crashing cooperative society was becoming clear, with billions of investor’s funds trapped. It became also evident when persons living with disabilities who invested N11 million stormed the Baraza head office along Melford Okilo Road by Otiotio Road Junction and stopped free flow of movement, chanting songs of protest, demanding refund of their money.
To assuage the worries and increasing tension in 2021, the CEO made at least 5-6 public assurance through widely circulated media updates on the matter on live podcasts, which he never kept any of the promises.
Rather, people speculated that he was simply buying time to leave the country sensing that the business had crashed, while investors were abandoned to their fate as all the promises were serially breached. This is where the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, waded in by declaring him wanted in 2022.
However, his lawyers approached Federal High Court in Yenagoa where they argued that disputes arising from cooperatives and their members are civil and should be handled by the cooperative tribunal or high court and not EFCC. Besides that, the EFFC Act, Section 46, says EFCC cannot interfere in purely civil contracts.
They also argued that Baraza is registered under Cooperative Societies Act of Bayelsa State, not as a Bank or Security and Exchange Commission, SEC, investment company. So EFCC declaring him wanted was vacated by the court and he wriggled out of the huge financial loss by investors on mere technicality. In other words, he successfully and smartly turned criminal fraud into a civil cooperative dispute.
Five years down the line, the over 40, 000 investors whose investments disappeared in the Baraza Ponzi scheme are still suffering from the consequences of the collapse of Baraza scheme, which Bribena cleverly registered as a cooperative society to evade financial regulators. The substance of the case, which is the loss of investment by hapless depositors, has not been addressed by the company; nor punished by appropriate authorities. Some borrowed the money they invested, hoping to benefit from the enticing 25% monthly interest and pay back their loans. This ended in financial disaster.
The fact, however, remains that Bribena and his Baraza Cooperative Society wrecked innocent lives and should be held accountable for the fraudulent scheme under appropriate laws of the country, be it state or federal. No one should be allowed to get away with such scheme that has ruined so many lives in a country operating under the rule of law. The average citizens should have the confidence that the laws of their country would protect them from being duped by clever business promoters.
Under untold pains, some of the hapless victims were sent to their untimely graves. Some reportedly committed suicide because they could not live with the consequences of the loss. Others were plunged into emotional disorder, causing socio-economic anomie in Bayelsa, Abuja, and Port Harcourt where Baraza had branches.
Bribena is on the run as his victims seek refund of their investments, said to be in billions of Naira. Reports have it that he is taking refuge in Ghana for fear of attack by casualties of the failed business.
In spite of hiding under the legal technicality of being a cooperative society, it is not out of place to describe Baraza corporative society under the management of Bribena as a Ponzi Scheme
A Ponzi Scheme is more or less a business that robs Peter to pay Paul, as returns to old investors are paid strictly from capital contributed by new investors, not from profit. It requires continuous inflow of new investors to survive. When inflow stops, it crashes. That is the reason SEC, CBN and EFCC call it ‘illegal deposits and unlicensed fund management’, because it does not disclose risks.
Moreover, it is also called Ponzi Scheme because the promoter claims to be investing in a real business such as Forex, Real Estate, Crypto with promises of fixed guaranteed returns. In reality there is no profitable business generating those returns.
Legally, a Ponzi Scheme is a fraudulent investment scheme or illegal fund management under the guise of cooperative society. This is why the court victory of Bribena is widely believed to be temporary relief for him because in the fullness of time, the law would catch up with him.
Curiously, five years after the platform crashed, Bribena has found his voice again! He has resorted to name dropping and attacks on prominent persons to exonerate himself. Recently, he has verbally attacked the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, his wife and first lady of the state, Dr. Gloria Diri, and a principal appointee of the government, Director of Transport and Special Duties, Prince Lucky Alex Youbogha. He has targeted these prominent persons using the social media.
First, he alleged that the Nembe – Brass bridge had collapsed due to bad construction and government inability for proper consultancy. It is baffling when and how he became a social critic overnight while taking refuge in Ghana. He has not seen the Nembe – Brass Road since construction commenced because he is on the run from the state. According to the state Commissioner for Information.
He also made scathing comments against the wife of the governor by accusing her of abandoning him when his scandalous business crashed. Prince Lucky Alex Youbogha was also targeted, but he is yet to bring any evidence how they contributed to the crash of the ill-fated Baraza business.
As a matter of fact, it is ridiculous for him to accuse the government of abandoning him as if Diri, his wife and Prince Youbogha were shareholders in Baraza Cooperative Society and owe him a duty to share the risk.
The issue of his claim that Dr. Gloria Diri abandoned him having donated freely to her foundation is laughable too. Where is it done in the world that you donate freely to a Non – Governmental Organization and you need the NGO’s assistance when you run into troubled waters in mismanaging your business to become insolvent? In civilized climes, promoters of Ponzi schemes are tried, and if found guilty, jailed.
One thing is clear, Bribena is simply trying to cause distraction to evade public eyes from the damage he has caused families, who are yet to recover from the shock and emotional disorder arising from his scandalous business that cost people their hard earned resources.
The earlier he retraces his missteps and show remorse and do the needful by putting in place measures for restitution the better.
The Baraza scheme was not only ill conceived, but a deliberate disguise to scam its victims with the endpoint of structural failure, driven by mismanagement, operational deficiency, incompetence and dishonesty.
For once he should show remorse and apologize to the whole world and to his victims in particular by turning a new leaf and stop his mischievous smear campaign against innocent persons, as the wrath of Karma is real.
-Michael Ifeanyi Oduah, a public interest analyst and victim of the Baraza saga wrote from Port Harcourt, Nigeria. They can be reached via email at [email protected]
