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By Akindele Orimolade<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The agrarian town of Toto in Nasarawa State has been plunged into grief and disbelief after residents lost several millions of naira to a fraudulent investment scheme that promised a staggering 100 percent return.
Unlike tragedies triggered by natural disasters or sudden deaths, the sorrow sweeping through the community stems from the devastating financial losses suffered by hardworking farmers and traders who fell prey to the scam.
Frontline News gathered that the fraud began when residents started receiving text messages on their mobile phones inviting them to invest money in a scheme that guaranteed a 100 percent profit within a short period.
Enticed by the promise of quick gains, many farmers reportedly sold off their farm produce and hurriedly transferred the proceeds into bank accounts provided by the fraudsters.
The rush to invest triggered an unusual boom in Point-of-Sale (POS) transactions across the town. Residents flocked to POS operators to transfer funds to the designated accounts after selling their goods.
In some extreme cases, sources revealed that individuals entrusted with farm produce stored in their homes allegedly sold the goods without the owners\u2019 consent in order to participate in the scheme.
But the excitement soon turned to despair when the so-called investment collapsed, leaving victims with huge financial losses and shattered hopes.
Reliable sources in the town disclosed that some traditional and political figures were among the early subscribers to the scheme, which further encouraged many residents to invest.
One prominent female trader, known for running several stores dealing in corn, guinea corn, groundnuts, palm oil and egusi, reportedly lost more than \u20a660 million to the failed venture.
Several young men were also said to have sold their motorcycles in desperation to raise money for the investment. One of them, identified simply as Musa, narrowly escaped the loss after his attempt to sell his Bajaj motorcycle was not completed before the fraudulent operation collapsed.
A female trader from Toto who was visiting her hometown in the South-West said she also received the investment message but ignored it because she suspected foul play.
She has since called on security agencies to investigate officials of a first-generation bank allegedly used by the fraudsters to collect the funds.
Several attempts at the weekend made to get Police reaction to the tragedy proved unsuccessful.
The incident mirrors a similar scam recorded in 2025 in Ikare-Akoko, Ondo State, where a group of fraudsters reportedly rented office space and operated for less than two months before disappearing with victims\u2019 money.
In that operation, more than \u20a6500 million was allegedly lost, while two victims reportedly died from shock and complications linked to high blood pressure after discovering the extent of their losses.
Some traditional Chiefs suspected to have been used as bait to entice innocent subscribers were suspended by the Olukare of Ikare, Oba Akadiri Momoh over the incident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Akindele Orimolade The agrarian town of Toto in Nasarawa State has been plunged into grief and disbelief after residents lost several millions of naira to a fraudulent investment scheme that promised a staggering 100 percent return.Unlike tragedies triggered by natural disasters or sudden deaths, the sorrow sweeping through the community stems from the devastating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/mlcqvjhyzqda.i.optimole.com\/cb:UNMm.7bb\/w:auto\/h:auto\/q:mauto\/f:best\/https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/frontlinenewsng.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/images-94.jpeg?fit=678%2C452&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4206,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204\/revisions\/4206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontlinenewsng.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}