A significant portion of the urban economy had become dependent on the spending power of young men living off internet fraud, Mr Ojudu said.
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.
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Mr Ojudu, in a post sharedon 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.”
“The EFCC has finally come to town. Not merely on occasional raids, but with a permanent command presence.
“The young men popularly known as Yahoo boys, together with their numerous associates and hangers-on, have reportedly fled in large numbers. Their fear of the EFCC, it would seem, has become the beginning of wisdom,” Mr Ojudu wrote.
Ex-senator reveal deserted hotels, lounges
Mr Ojudu said reports of empty hotels, deserted lounges, struggling supermarkets and declining commercial activities initially sounded exaggerated until he personally visited several businesses in Ado Ekiti.
He recounted spending nearly an hour at a restaurant of a prominent hotel overlooking its swimming pool without seeing another customer.
“I was the only customer,” he wrote. He stated that the same hotel had, only two years earlier, struggled to accommodate guests because of heavy patronage from affluent young men.
He added that he also visited one of the city’s popular lounges, which he described as “almost deserted,” adding that hotel car parks that once overflowed with luxury vehicles had become largely empty.
The impacts go beyond struggling entertainment and hospitality centers. According to him, landlords are also complaining about abandoned apartments, mechanics who previously serviced expensive vehicles are now waiting endlessly for customers, while beer parlour operators and used-car dealers have also experienced declining patronage.
Fraudsters flee EFCC crackdown
The former senator’s remarks come amid heightened anti-corruption activities in Ekiti.
In June, the EFCC inaugurated its permanent zonal headquarters in Ado Ekiti to strengthen investigations and enforcement against financial crimes across the region.
During the inauguration, Vice President Kashim Shettima, representing President Bola Tinubu, described the facility as a major boost to Nigeria’s anti-corruption campaign, while EFCC Chairman Olukoyede pledged sustained action against economic crimes.
The commission has also intensified prosecutions in the state, including the arraignment of a couple before the Federal High Court in Ado Ekiti over an alleged N1.09 billion contract fraud, with investigators accusing them of diverting funds into properties and other assets believed to be proceeds of crime.
Although the EFCC has not officially linked recent business slowdowns in Ado Ekiti to its enforcement activities, Mr Ojudu maintained that the anti-graft agency’s sustained presence has altered the economic landscape of the state.
“The empty hotels and deserted lounges may represent temporary economic pain,” the ex-senator said.”The emptiness of our moral landscape, however, is a far greater tragedy. Empty hotels can be filled again. A generation emptied of values is far more difficult to restore.”
When crime became an economy
While acknowledging the immediate economic consequences of the crackdown, Mr Ojudu argued that the development revealed a deeper social crisis.
He said a significant portion of the urban economy had become dependent on the spending power of young men living off internet fraud. That should frighten everyone.
He warned that many young Nigerians increasingly view internet fraud as a viable career path, lamenting what he described as the erosion of values that once celebrated education, hard work and professional success.
According to him, the danger extends beyond financial crimes.
“When ordinary internet fraud no longer produces enough money, darker stories emerge. One hears disturbing tales of Yahoo Plus, ritual practices, organ trafficking and other forms of occult criminality allegedly intended to guarantee success,” he wrote.
He argued that a society that rewards unexplained wealth risks producing future leaders whose values are shaped by criminality rather than integrity.
“If fraud becomes the classroom in which today’s youth are trained, fraud will inevitably become the language through which tomorrow’s society is governed,” he warned.
