Before Tolulope Iluyomade became the ‘visionary’ behind Shanono Microfinance Bank, he was also the ‘visionary leader’ of Latrose Finance Limited, a now-inactive investment firm that cost Petra Okoro (pseudonym), a Lagos-based woman, her hard-earned N6 million.
Okoro told FIJ she had visited the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and pestered Latrose Finance Limited for her money since 2022, but her efforts did not give her any grain of hope.
She said she perused the internet for reviews about Latrose Finance Limited before investing in the company. What moved her from belief to conviction were the positive reviews on Nairaland, an Internet forum, about the firm. According to her, Nairaland users said the firm had been paying without fail since 2006.
To get started, Okoro said, she went one step further by visiting the firm, which made it clear that Latrose Finance would give her a 16 per cent return on her investments but pay it quarterly. However, she did not invest until January 10, 2021, after discovering that Pastor Ituah Ighodalo was the chairman of the company.
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Between January and July 2022, Okoro said, Latrose Finance paid her N360,000 twice. That was the last time they paid her any return on investment.
“After a while, I became so ill and was hospitalised. I started reaching out to them to request my capital because I needed it for medical reasons, but Latrose Finance gave me the runaround. They kept giving excuses throughout,” Okoro told FIJ.

Okoro said that after pestering the company for some time, they paid her N3 million out of her N9 million, and that was the last payment she received from them. This was in October 2022. Since then, she has not heard from the company.
“At some point, I began to see ‘Cloudbank’ in their newsletters. I didn’t understand why they would change their name. So, I tried talking to Iluyomade Tolulope, the founder, but it yielded no success,” she said.
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“I then went to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), but I learnt that he was wanted and that many others had reported him to them before me. This has gone on for three years, and my money has been hanging, but I need it back.”
On December 13, 2023, the EFCC posted an image declaring Iluyomade wanted. However, he has continued posting freely on X since then.

FIJ contacted Latrose Finance via its phone number on Tuesday, but the number did not connect. A follow-up text was sent to their line, but they did not respond at press time.
When FIJ queried X via its search bar for Iluyomade, many posts from victims of Latrose Finance Limited popped up. A page named ‘Victims of Cloudbank’ and another X user are spearheading a campaign to get Iluyomade arrested.
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