The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan Zonal Office, has arrested more than 100 undergraduates of various tertiary institutions over financial crimes ranging from online love scam popularly known as ‘Yahoo Yahoo’, Automated Teller Machine fraud, and online marketing fraud.
The anti-graft agency also said that it had recovered a total of N277,931,341.31 from the fraudsters in the past nine months – which represents an increase of more than N57million over the N220million it recovered in the previous year.
The commission’s Deputy Zonal Head, Ibadan, Kazeem Oseni, made this known on behalf of the Acting Chairman of the commission, Ibrahim Magu, during a press conference on Monday, in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
He added that 50 cases had been instituted against the perpetrators of the financial crimes with 381 other cases being investigated.
He said, “The commission is attending to 431 cases among which 50 cases are already in court. In the past nine months, we have arrested 195 individuals in connection with bank fraud, internet fraud, land and general disputes. Among the cases in court are the ones involving the Vice Chancellor of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, that of the Federal University of Technology, Akure and the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta.
“The prevailing case in Ibadan is internet frauds involving young people. The Ibadan office has so far recovered N277, 931,341m from various financial criminals while we have also recovered objects like cars used by fraudsters to perpetrate crimes.”
In Ibadan, the so-called ‘yahoo-yahoo’ is understood to be the most prevalent financial crime with more than half of the seized vehicles recovered from the ‘yahoo-yahoo boys.’
