No fewer than 236 internet fraudsters, also known as Yahoo boys, have been arrested in 2019 in Ibadan alone, according to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
Mr Friday Elebo, the Ibadan Zonal Head of EFCC, said this on Wednesday, adding that the commission had commenced investigations on the Nigerians indicted by the US Federal Bureau of Investigations FBI).
The EFCC chief said that the zonal office, from January till date, had arrested 263 suspected internet fraudsters out of whom 111 were convicted and sentenced to various jail terms.
“The zone has also recovered huge sums of money in local and foreign currencies. The currencies are 52,702 US dollars, 2,400 Euro, 400 Canadian dollars and 60 pounds.
“We also got the nod of the court for some of them to forfeit valuable items established to have been proceeds of internet-related crimes.
“These include landed properties, vehicles, laptops, phones and many others,” he said.
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On the FBI list, he said, “I want to assure you that by the time we conclude our investigations, we will unravel bigger suspects because the figure currently released by the FBI is like one per cent of the cycle of persons involved in the cybercrime network.
“Just yesterday (Tuesday), we arrested a banker who was involved in converting foreign currencies to Naira at a local bank in Nigeria. He is currently helping the commission with information on our investigation,” he said.
According to him, as a responsive organisation, the EFCC will do everything within its constitutional powers to ensure that the interests of hardworking and law-abiding Nigerians are protected.
Acknowledging the negative impact of the crime on other Nigerians, Etebo said, “we cannot pretend to be oblivious of the nagging impact of illicit activities of a few who have chosen to be black sheep within the fold,.
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