Recently, Kogi State Government threatened to demolish houses occupied by internet fraudsters, popularly known as Yahoo boys in the state. The State Security Adviser, retired Commander, Jerry Omodara who gave the warning when he appeared on “State of Kogi” a Radio Kogi Audience Participatory programme, however, said the government needed the assistance of the public in the area of provision of information to arrest internet fraudsters in the state......READ THE FULL STORY>>.....READ THE FULL STORY>>
He said security agencies will soon go after hotels used by yahoo boys to perpetrate crime. ”It should be noted that appropriate sanctions will be handed to those harbouring the fraudsters”. He cautioned landlords against giving their houses to “Yahoo Boys”, pointing out that such structures will also be pulled down.
Kogi State government in partnership with security agencies have identified houses built with proceeds of criminal activities and those housing men of the underworld would soon be demolished. Security Agencies and local hunters have been directed to arrest or gun down anyone carrying arms in the forest.
It is a well-known fact that the activities of internet fraudsters in Kogi State and other parts of the country has been on the rise, prompting the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, to arrest many earlier this year.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) earlier warned hoteliers who allow Yahoo Boys to check into their facilities risk being prosecuted and jailed. In a statement on its official Facebook page, the anti-graft agency said hoteliers could bag a jail term.
Warning hoteliers against allowing cybercriminals into their facilities, the EFCC said hoteliers would be contravening section 3 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act if they continued to allow Yahoo Boys to check into their hotels. According to EFCC, the act recommends five years’ imprisonment for hoteliers who are accomplices of cybercriminals.
The hotel owner perhaps is ignorant of the fact that he could become an accomplice and liable for allowing his premises to be used for cybercrime, in contravention of section 3 of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act.
The section provides that a person who, being the occupier or is concerned in the management of any premises, causes or knowingly permits the premises to be used for any purpose which constitutes an offence under this act is guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not less than five years without the option of a fine.
The anti-graft office was, however, silent on how it would prove a case of active conspiracy between the hotel owners and suspected Internet fraudsters who use their facilities. Hotels often ask customers to fill their occupation as part of the check-in procedure, but guests are not required to answer the question. Even then, hoteliers would have to establish that every customer provided true information about themselves at check-in for them to avoid EFCC’s threat of prosecution.
Reacting to the warning of Kogi State Government and EFCC to hoteliers in the country, a hotelier in Lokoja, who spoke to this reporter on conditions of anonymity, said hotels are always open to customers and that EFCC should stop using arbitrary power to intimidate or harass hoteliers.
“EFCC is established by the act of parliament. It cannot hide under the guise of fighting corruption to violate the citizens’ rights as guaranteed by the Constitution of the country. Hoteliers are businessmen/women,” he said.
Another hotelier, Joseph Atama, also reacted that EFCC approach would go a long way but not the best way.
He said, “Jailing the hotel owners is not the solution, there is a need for orientation from the family, schools and parents to enable people to understand EFCC law on this issue. They will be arresting innocent owners if such law could be implemented.”
“Even men in uniform themselves get bribes, so how are we sure that they will not be bribed whenever they arrest yahoo boys.”
“Hotels are opened to make money, so, how will they identify someone who is a Yahoo boy? Is it written on their faces?”
Another questioned the process of identifying a Yahoo boy.
“Somebody comes in and wants to lodge-in an hotel, you don’t know who he/she is. The question is, are the hoteliers equipped with the ability to scrutinize who Yahoo boys are?
“We often believe that most of these boys are into Yahoo but the reality is that some of them are into money rituals and how do you want to checkmate people like that,” he said.
A lecturer at Prince Abubakar Audu University Anyigba, Dr. Sunday Agbana suggested that parents of Yahoo Boys should be arrested instead of hoteliers. He said that some parents of the Yahoo- boys are culpable of the crime committed by them. They should be prosecuted to stop these crimes committed by their children.
“I want to say that the majority of the parents of these boys know what their children do: coming home with Lexus cars, a student 200L buying houses and cars for their parents, and they know that they don’t have any legitimate job.
“They are accomplices as far as I am concerned. I am looking forward to a situation that the legal system will have a grip on such parents that encourage such. Decadence is a big failure in the family setting.
“There is no way your ward will be misbehaving to such extent that you will not know, otherwise you have failed as a parent.”
Agbawa added that some of the internet fraudsters involve in human rituals for money purposes termed: “Yahoo plus.”
Investigation reveals that students take over rooms in major hotels in Lokoja town for a whole year. They don’t even allow the hotel staff to clean their rooms, so, they don’t know what is even happening in the rooms. Surely, hoteliers in the state have great roles to play in reducing the new trend among the youths.
How do you explain a 21 years old boy paying N2m hotel bills that he has not used, taking five to 10 rooms in a hotel and nobody sleeps in the hotel rooms for the most part of the week. One should know that they are up to something; this is the area hotelier should assist to nip the crime in the bud. There are a lot of things coming up.
The menace of cybercrime has made the country popular for the wrong reasons. Regrettably, cyber criminals all over the world and in Nigeria continue to operate and improve their scams with technological tools, Virtual Private Network (VPN) applications to mask their location, photo manipulation software to create false appearances, taking advantage of Bitcoin anonymity to receive fraudulent proceeds, and creating web pages for phishing and more. According to Proshareng.com with about 3.9 billion users, the Internet has become one of the greatest technological developments. Though widely accepted for its ease and efficiency, it is also embedded with multitude of vulnerabilities, which pose significant security threats to users and hence, the emergence of cybercrime.
It is believed that with new technologies, there would be the birth of new opportunities for the world to explore. However, the continuous rise in the cases of cybercrimes across Nigeria is so alarming, and one cannot help but think if Internet revolution is actually a blessing or curse. It is further disheartening to find out that many youths do not see anything wrong with this criminal act, by those referred to as ‘Yahoo Boys’ as they continue to blame their nefarious actions on economic, political and societal problems such as high rate of unemployment, quest for wealth and affluence, and weak cyber-criminal laws in the country, among others.
In Nigeria today, various Internet crimes are being committed, which in turn have continued to tarnish the image of the country within the international community. For instance, it has posed great danger by discouraging foreign investments and leading to low income revenue. The increase in this fraudulent act has gradually become an addiction to many Nigerian youths as they see it as the easiest and fastest means of getting wealth and living flamboyant lifestyles. Oftentimes, Internet scammers target senior citizens or the vulnerable.
The 2015 Cybercrime Act in Nigeria provides that “hackers, if found guilty of unlawfully accessing a computer system or network, are liable to a fine of up to 10 million Naira or a term of imprisonment of five years (depending on the purpose of the hack)”.
What then is the way forward? The time has come for the government to come up with stiffer laws and sanctions for those found guilty of cybercrime, ‘yahoo-yahoo’, and ‘yahoo plus’ activities. There should also be more campaign against the glorification of fraud by the entertainment industry.
Furthermore, there is the need for re-orientation of Nigerian youths to begin to see themselves as the country’s future with the determination that they can always achieve whatever positive goals they have set to achieve. It is common knowledge that an idle hand is the devil’s workshop and as such, the government should provide job opportunities to keep youths productively engaged. Above all, there is the need for attitudinal change by all while the society should make the environment conducive for young ones to exhibit their various talents.
