SIR: Two incidents, all in February: First, operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested about 14 individuals suspected of internet fraud at a ‘Yahoo Academy’ in Makurdi, Benue State. Items recovered included laptops, ATM cards, phones, one Forman generator and a Toyota Corolla car. In the Akure metropolis, the men of the commission stormed residential places, including student lodges, and arrested over thirty suspects including 14 students of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) and 19 others for suspected internet crimes.
According to the Head of Media and Publicity of the Agency, Dele Oyewale, operatives of the Commission from the Benin Zonal Command acted on intelligence in carrying out the operation which was carried out in the dead of night. Items recovered included ten exotic cars, phones, laptops, one motor bike. He pledged that the suspects would be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.
Following the operation which was carried out around 3a.m in the night, the Students Union Government of FUTA strongly condemned the move which some students said they thought was kidnapping.
It is common knowledge that internet fraudsters popularly known as ‘yahoo boys’ hardly sleep. The challenge is as real and as formidable as it has ever been. But the truth is even more frightening.
They call it the streets or trenches or HQ or whatever else it is their young minds can conjure, there is a whole terminology for it. The game that is predominantly played across the internet features young people including children some as young as 14 and even younger. They crowd the internet space and maintain a constant lookout for unsuspecting people they nonchalantly refer to as clients. Their clientele include Nigerians but are predominantly drawn from pools of the unsuspecting across the world. Older demographics are favoured as long as there is liquidity and gullibility. But they don’t discriminate as long as the online client is willing to part with some money. This has become a uniquely Nigerian experience.
Today, with Nigerians reeling from incalculable hardship as the economy repeatedly tanks, Hushpuppi’s trademark skill has spawned an army of acolytes distinguished as much by an aversion to hard work as a voracious appetite for the good things of life.
With the proliferation of mobile devices, Nigeria is witnessing what can simply be described as an epidemic of internet fraud of immeasurable proportions.
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Internet fraud has become so common in Nigeria today that it is now the crime of choice for many young people, as well as one of the most complex challenges facing law enforcement agencies in Nigeria.
The fact that despite the operation and implementation of the Cybercrimes Act by Nigeria’s sometimes overzealous law enforcement agencies, cybercrimes in many forms remain a raging problem calls for introspection.
An entire generation faces an erosion and corrosion of its core values if nothing beyond detention and incarceration is done.
It goes beyond feeding young, frustrated Nigerians into Nigeria’s insatiable prosecution machine. More than anything else, it is a matter of justice. The problem of internet fraud hints at a larger darker problem – poverty which manifests in unemployment.
While there is no excuse for crime, the link between crime and poverty is a historical one. Nigeria would labour in vain if it thinks that it can curtail one without confronting the other. Tackling the root causes of internet fraud must begin from fixing poverty and unemployment among young people. Until this is done, what is already a massive problem will only grow bigger and bigger.
•Ike Willie-Nwobu,
Ikewilly9@gmail.com