The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has disclosed that underage individuals engaged in internet fraud, commonly known as ‘Yahoo Yahoo,’ resort to falsifying their ages to open bank accounts and obtain driver’s licenses, facilitating the laundering of proceeds from their illicit activities.
The EFCC has pledged to pursue government agencies and individuals responsible for issuing fraudulent age declarations.
Effa Okim, the Zonal Director of the EFCC for Edo, Delta, and Ondo states, made this revelation during a visit to the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by Festus Alenkhe, in Benin City.
Furthermore, Okim noted that despite its relatively small size, Edo State ranks second to Lagos in terms of convictions for such crimes. He also pointed out that parents, often claiming their children were underage during convictions, are also implicated in facilitating the forgery of documents.
He said: “Crime, what we call yahoo yahoo is visible in our streets. When you walk on our streets, when you visit our hotels per second, you see these boys and it is so visible that it is disturbing and in addition to being visible, the statistics that we have is that Edo is after Lagos in terms of conviction.
“It calls for concern because in terms of size, Edo is not big but look at the slant on the level of convictions, it is not a good reputation and for me. Edo is too great in Nigerian history to be reduced to that level in terms of criminality.
“When you hear that a 12-year-old boy has been sent to jail, that in law he is not supposed to go jail because he is underage but it happens here often because they go and agree with some authorities and do age declaration stating that they are 18 just to enable them to open an account and put their criminal structures in place and at the end, when they are arrested, their father will come to say their children are underage.
“We are asking them where were you when he got his driver’s licence, where were you when your underage son opened an account because in the Nigerian law, an underage cannot open an account? Where were you when your son was irresponsibly spending money?”
He said the commission in line with its mandate and vision was ready to partner with the media “to reduce the visibility of crime on our streets.”
On his part, Alenkhe urged the new zonal director to maintain an open-door policy to always make information available to journalists.