True to form, Nigeria continues to flail and fumble at a crime that is fast evolving, striking branch and stem while leaving the roots firmly tucked in the ground. Operatives of the Benin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), recently arrested 46 suspects over alleged involvement in internet-related fraud in Delta State. The suspects popularly called yahoo boys were arrested in Warri, Ubeji and Jeddo communities in Delta State on September 8.
About 13 exotic cars, laptops and mobile phones were also recovered from them. Now, in the face of yet more arrests of young Nigerians for internet-related fraud, the natural reaction is to flinch and rail at the process and proceeds of a crime which consists in impersonating White people on the internet and mining such impersonation to milk the unsuspecting but ultimately gullible among them of their money. This crime which is as widespread as it is lucrative on its way to become the crime of choice among Nigeria’s young people, many of whom have improbably found a way out of grinding poverty by ripping off White people.
It is also proving to be a nightmare for Nigerian authorities. It may be argued that those going into ‘yahoo yahoo’ are doing so as a matter of choice, but even a cursory scratch at the surface of a financial crime gaining ferocious popularity would yield a choice-less conundrum. How much crueler can conditions get in a country where families exert themselves, exhaust their reso.