Internet Fraudsters, Ritual Killings New Security Challenges in Southwest, Says Amotekun

Fidelis David in Akure

The Southwest Security Network Agency codenamed Amotekun has listed internet fraudsters popularly known as ‘Yahoo-boys’ as new emerging security menace in the Southwest region.

The Chairman, Council of Amotekun Commanders, Adetunji Adeleye, made the dreadful disclosure while speaking with journalists in Akure, Ondo State, revealing that: “The menace of ‘yahoo boys’ and ritual killings is what is taking the turn of the day.”

Adeleye, who is the commander of Ondo State Security Network Agency, decried the recent upsurge in the involvement of young people in the fraudulent activities in the state and Southwest at large, adding that some of the internet fraudsters are involved in human rituals for money purposes termed: ‘Yahoo plus’.

He said: “A couple of weeks ago, I invited a prominent hotelier because our investigation reveals that we found students who take over rooms in these

major hotels for one year. They don’t even allow the hotel staff to clean their rooms, so, they don’t know what is even happening in the rooms. A lot of those ladies are butchered and cleaned up inside these hotel rooms for ritual purposes.”

Adeleye, who is also the Special Adviser to Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu on Security Matters, stressed that hoteliers in the state have great roles to play in reducing the new trend among the youths.

According to him, “We told them the implications and made them to know that they would be made to face the music if they notice any of these unwholesome acts of these youths, and they fail to report them.

“How do you explain a 21-year-old boy paying N2million hotel bills that he has not used; taking five to 10 rooms in a hotel and nobody sleeps in the rooms for most part of the week?

“We should know that they are up to something; this is the area that we feel that the hotelier should assist to nip the crime in the bud. There are a lot of things going on.”

The chairman, however, stressed that some parents are culpable of the crime, recounting that: “I want to say that the majority of the parents of these boys know what their children are doing-a child coming home with Lexus cars, a 200 level student buying houses and cars for their parents, and they know that they don’t have any legitimate job.

“They are accomplices as far as I am concerned. I am looking forward to a situation that the legal system will have a grip on such parents that encourage such. The decadence is a big failure from the family setting. There is no way your ward will be misbehaving to such extent that you wouldn’t know; otherwise you have failed as a parent.”