Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ola Olukoyede, has made startling revelations that banks in the country lost over N8 billion to internet fraud, otherwise known as Yahoo-Yahoo Boys, in 2022.

The EFCC chairman made the disclosure during an interactive session with media executives in Abuja, yesterday.

He narrated how cyber crime has hurt the companies and its negative effects in attracting direct foreign investment for the country. He lamented that no fewer than 71 percent of companies operating in Nigeria were victims of cybercrime in 2022 even as he argued that the Commission’s war against internet fraud is about safeguarding the country’s future.

“In 2022 alone, I’m waiting for the report of 2023, we discovered that more than 71 percent of Nigerian industries, companies and firms fell victim to cyber crime. Now, which country or company would thrive with this kind of thing? “You want to attract foreign direct investment; the moment you come in, Yahoo boys will attack your platform. You start losing money and you think they would stay?

“Is that not what we are seeing? We are rescuing the future of Nigeria by going into this cyber crime investigation and prosecution.

“Now, within that period, the Nigerian economy lost $706 million (via) these companies through cyber crime, to the activities of these Yahoo Yahoo boys because we don’t take them seriously now, not knowing that we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder.

“The alarming statistics continued with Nigerian banks losing over N8 billion to electronic transfer fraud in the firstnine months of 2022.

“A system lost over N8 billion to a particular scheme of fraud and you are asking EFCC to close its eyes to that kind of situation. Are we even fair to ourselves?”

419 training schools

More alarming, he said, is the existence of 419 training schools across the country. “We’ve discovered that, in almost all the states of Nigeria, all the sub-nationals, we have what we call ‘419 training schools’ where they harvest our children from primary schools.

“When they leave school, they end up in some of these 419 training schools. They start indoctrinating them. These are facts. They even ask their parents to sign an undertaking. After that, they induct them and some of these fraud tests start paying their school fees and indoctrinate them into cyber crime; as young as they are… Even children of those from wealthy homes are doing it now. It’s a trend!

“Now, Nigeria’s yearly loss to internet fraud amounted to over $500 million. In one year! This is according to the Nigeria Communications Commission…”

The EFCC boss revealed that the agency has created a cybercrime research centre where convicted Yahoo Yahoo boys, would be trained to channel their knowledge to positive aspects of the society.

Humanitarian Affairs Ministry

On the ongoing investigations in the Humanitarian Affairs Ministry, with the suspension of the minister, Dr. Betta Edu, the EFCC chairman disclosed that the probe was beyond the minister.

He gave details of how trillions of government funds were moved out of the ministry’s accounts. “N14 billion, under one hour, was moved. You call that a system? I told people, ‘look, the people that have been suspended, if we had replaced them by now, even if you had brought saints into that ministry, in 24 hours, that saint would be contaminated.

“So, it’s not about Betta Edu neither is it about Halima. Let’s not personalise the matter; let’s not single out an individual. It’s about the system. It’s the system we are investigating. So, whosoever is found culpable, along the line, are the people that would be held.

“If I’m running after Betta Edu or Halima, and hundreds of other people are stealing money… Do you think this investigation started during Betta Edu’s time? Do you think it started during Halima? Do you even think it started during Sadiyya’s time as minister?

“Before that ministry was established, every single kobo that was allocated to that ministry was under investigation.

“So, we are talking of trillions (of naira). If we keep talking about Betta Edu, we won’t get anywhere. We would go back to where we are coming from. So, let us take our time and, in any case, when did we even start this investigation?

“I’ve said it before, we are investigating over 50 accounts. You must understand some of these processes.For each account, we write letters to banks and the banks reply. From there, we get other leads. From there, we follow those leads again and we start writing letters. Sometimes, it takes two, three weeks for them to reply. We bring people, we interview them. We run after those ones. Investigation takes time. I’ve not come out to say I’ve indicted so and so person. What I said was that we have recovered so, so amount.” (Extracted from a Daily Sun report)