Nigeria’s anti-corruption agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, says it is investigating about 800 suspects arrested for alleged internet fraud during massive raids in Lagos last week.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says this is the largest number of arrests ever made in a single raid.
EFCC spokesman Wilson Uwujaren told VOA on Tuesday that the raid followed months of intelligence work and surveillance.
792 suspects, including 193 foreigners, mostly Chinese, were held on December 10 in a seven-storey building believed to be a “hustle empire” – a place where people are trained to commit cyber crimes.
Uwujaren said foreigners were recruiting Nigerians there and training them to run romance and investment scams targeting victims in North America and Europe.
“For us this is testament to the fact that we are resolute in our efforts to ensure that financial crimes are investigated wherever they occur in the country. And again for us this current operation is an eye-opener because it involves huge The number includes foreigners. Which is an indication that the perception of Nigerians as fraudulent people may not be true, we now have many foreigners coming to Nigeria to commit fraud which has been attributed to Nigerians. “
The EFCC recovered hundreds of computers, phones and vehicles during the raid.
The commission says it is cooperating with international partners to determine whether the suspects are linked to a wider network of internet fraud cells.
Cyber crime is a growing problem in Nigeria. In April, a report by a coalition of researchers from the universities of Oxford and New South Wales ranked Nigeria fifth in the world for cybercrime activities, behind only Russia, Ukraine, China and the United States.
According to cyber security analyst Abayomi Adeyanju, lack of economic opportunities, inadequate cyber security awareness and poor law enforcement are the reasons for the rise of this trend in Nigeria.
“There are very good IT [information technology] people with skills, and then they graduate from universities, study, get certificates and there are no jobs for them, and they have to [eat]I’m not one to encourage crime but these are the guys – their skills can be used,” he said.
Adeyanju said that beyond prosecuting criminals, Nigeria should create more opportunities in the technology sector to significantly curb cyber crimes.
“If we can fix the employment issues, these people are not being utilized gainfully. The skills are just there and so, if they don’t have something to eat, the human instinct is first to survive. , So I think the first thing that should be done is to fix the economy and then create more employment opportunities.”
The EFCC said the suspects would be brought to court to face charges in the coming days.