By Akinwale Kasali
A surprised Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Boss, Ola Olukayode, said he was in shock when his bank account was hacked before him by a 17-year old fraudster.
Narrating how the teenager was able to hack into his personal computer and bank account right in his presence at his Lagos office, Olukayode said he was forced to invite the young man to his office to personally interrogate him after hearing his escapades.
He disclosed that the boy opened his locked computer and told him he could move up to N10 million from any account at once.
Olukoyede said he was deeply concerned about how some young Nigerians are deploying their talents in a negative way.
He added that the 17-year old boy is an undergraduate student of History and Anthropology who never had any science background.
According to the EFCC boss, the young lad was able to get his BVN, account number and bank details on the spot with just his phone number.
He said the EFCC is developing new measures to deal with the psychology and mental orientation of young people who commit crime. The measure will involve punishment, deterrence and rehabilitation that would ensure their future is not wasted or destroyed by the evil pathway they had chosen.
Olukoyede argued that even though the talent in the boy was deployed to defraud and commit crime, he was also looking at the human angle and what could motivate a young boy into such criminal enterprise.
He said “I brought in my Lagos office a 17-year old boy who is studying history and athropology. He is at 200 level. He is not doing anything science. The guy sat in my office in Lagos and demonstrated some things to me on my laptop. He asked for my number, I gave him my number and through my number, he got my BVN. He then mentioned the name of my account number to me at the bank. I didn’t tell him anything.”
He said it was important that the country do everything possible to dissuade such young people who if they continue would eventually end up in jail or even lose their lives.
“The problem is, I see crime in that, I also see opportunities in it. So, if you leave these guys, we don’t make them know that what they are doing is wrong, if you leave them, they will continue to see it as a way of life to make money.”
He said the EFCC has to investigate them, prosecute them, but at the same time, dissaude them from choosing crime as a career.
He said because of their young ages, the EFCC would punish them for crimes committed with light sentences for them but would work to change their orientation.
He said “What joy will I derive in sending a 17 year old boy to jail? You have destroyed his future. You have destroyed his career. Most times, they give them options of fine and all of that. So we bring them back, we lecture them, we talk to them.”
He said the 17 year old boy when he was done said: “look oga, I can make 10m now. I will demonstrate it to you. I will move money from your account to mine.”
He said he told him not to do so.
“I said no, don’t do that in my office and he was ready to do that. In fact, when he opened my laptop, I didn’t give him the key to my laptop and he had access. He forgot that he was even in my office. He forgot I was around him. He was just lost in the act. I said okay, why did you do this? He said both parents are farmers. They couldn’t go to the farm because of security and he has two younger ones. One is in JSS2 and the other in SSS2”, he stated.
The boy is the one feeding his parents and responsible for the tuition of his younger ones.
“So what do we do? In as much as I want to do my job, like I said, I saw a Bill Gate in that guy, ” he said adding that the EFCC is working to turn around their world view and make them useful to the society after they have been punished.
He said the commission is coming up with a cyber crime research center as part of the projects in the commission’s néw academy where young people will be captured and trained on cyber crimes detection and prevention
“I said okay from today, if you are able to get out of this, we will do our work and whatever happens, I will take responsibility of your schooling. I told my family, we are going to do that.”
He said he spoke to one of his friends who is also ready to take up the schooling of the boy’s sibling in SSS2.
“These are the challenges we are facing. So, for people to sit out there and begin to condemn EFCC, they don’t even have an idea of what we are doing.They don’t have understanding of the enormity of the problems. They do not. Now, we are coming up with what is called the Cyber Crime Research Centre as part of our projects in our new academy where we will bring some young boys during vacation.”
He said the EFCC will help arrested teenagers to shift from drime to a new way or life that would benefit the society.
