Former Ekiti Central senator, Babafemi Ojudu, has said intensified operations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) against suspected internet fraudsters have triggered a mass exodus of young cybercrime suspects from Ekiti State, leaving hotels, lounges, apartments and other businesses in Ado Ekiti struggling with dwindling patronage.
Mr Ojudu, in a post shared on Facebook on Tuesday, said the recent anti-graft operations had exposed what he described as the extent to which parts of the state’s urban economy had become reliant on the spending power of suspected internet fraudsters.
His comments come barely two months after the commission opened its new Zonal Directorate office in Ado Ekiti, a move the anti-graft agency said would strengthen its operations across Ekiti and its neighboring state, Ondo states.
The EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede during the commissioning declared that “tough times” awaited fraudsters operating in the region while assuring law-abiding residents they had nothing to fear from the agency’s expanded presence.
However, Mr Ojudu, ex-Special Adviser on Political Matters to the late President Muhammadu Buhari who served directly under then-Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, said many of the young men popularly known as “Yahoo boys” have since been abandoning the state for cities such as Ibadan, Akure, Osogbo and Lagos to avoid the intensified crackdown.”
