Oselen Ekeleoutomiye, a Lagos-based businessman, had the idea of investing his money in any business that could guarantee profits.

Sometime in 2021, right after his wedding, he and his wife rubbed minds on what to do with some spare cash he had with him.

Their deliberation led them back to their wedding, their MC, the artiste who performed, and all the way to that artiste’s very good friend, Ubi Franklin.

“So I called Ubi Franklin, and said I saw an advert of his company, Instant Apartment, a short-let service, on Instagram, and would like to invest,” Ekeleoutomiye told FIJ.

This decision would later take ₦2 million out of his pocket on July 22, 2021, and cause a long dispute between him and Franklin who refused to repay his investment and returns two years after.

“Sometime after my wedding in 2021, I had some free cash, so I told my wife that we should put it somewhere so we could get RoI, and she agreed,” Ekeleoutomiye narrated to FIJ.

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“During my wedding, I got to know Ubi Franklin through MC Edo Pikin, a mutual friend who anchored my wedding. This MC helped get Ubi to bring Iyanya to perform at my wedding, and it went fine.

“So, after the wedding, I texted Ubi to say I saw his company, Instant Apartment, and was looking to invest.

“He told me there was Instant Silver, Instant Gold and Instant Platinum. He said it would cost ₦2 million for me to register for Instant Silver, so I paid.”

Ekeleoutomiye signed a contract on July 20, paid ₦500,000, and promised to pay ₦1.5 million balance two days after.

“We signed the agreement on July 20, 2021, but I gave him ₦500,000 that day, and then paid ₦1.5 million two days after,” he told FIJ.

“The agreement was that he would pay me 30 percent of the money (₦600,000) in four installments within one year (₦150,000 every three months), and after one year, the contract would end so I could take my capital back or choose to renew, but he only paid me once.

“I gave him an account number to pay my RoI into, and then took my mind off it. It was until recently that my lawyer asked me about the investment that I recalled and went to check the account number, only to see one payment made on October 29, 2021.

“I called him regularly, but he did not respond. I sent him WhatsApp messages but he did not reply. He simply would come and say ‘Hi’.

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“I had to involve Daniel Obaseki, a friend of his, to help speak with him about it. When Obaseki called him, Ubi told Obaseki that he would pay me in the first week of May. Meanwhile, he had earlier told me he would pay me in April.

“He keeps saying his GM duped him or someone ran away with money, but it is all lies, he does not want to pay me.”

Ekeleoutomiye told FIJ his lawyers wrote to Franklin in January 2023 after texting and failing to get a response from him all through 2022, and Franklin acknowledged receipt of this letter and promised to repay but didn’t.

What followed was more WhatsApp messages, and a promise to repay in the second week of April 2023.

He said it was after this converse that Daniel Obaseki got involved, and Franklin made another promise to pay in the first week of May, but failed.

Frustrated in his efforts to seek a refund of an accrued sum of ₦2,750,000, Ekeleoutomiye took to Twitter on Saturday.

His tweet narrated his encounter with Franklin and Instant Apartment.

When Ubi saw this tweet, he responded quickly on Whatsapp, and threatened actions against Ekeleoutomiye.

In responding to Ekeleoutomiye, Franklin said he was in court with a lady who tweeted about his failure to pay ₦500,000 for a design he contracted her for, but Ekeleoutomiye independently confirmed from the lady that someone else paid on Franklin’s behalf, and she never received any court summons.

FIJ called Franklin in April, but he never responded. We also sent him WhatsApp messages, text messages and messages on Twitter, but he did not respond.

Via Whatsapp, FIJ sent messages to his UK number, he read them but did not respond either.