Cyber crime is robbing Nigerians of opportunities, Government must act
Nigeria may not be deeply aware of the depth of international impacts and losses that the menace of cyber crime has been costing the Country over time. Perhaps, the poor practice and understanding of diplomatic relations might be readily pointed to as one reason why the campaign against internet fraud has been driven with mild hands in the Country. It is apparent that the measures deployed towards the menace have only been so weak such that the practice continues to assume broader dimensions from time to time.
The misadventure has apparently become one of the quickest resort handy for many Nigerian youth and adolescents to easily think of as a fast means to make money in recent times. The culpable conduct of mischievous elements among security operatives who rather than hunt cyber fraudsters for prosecution, do compromise for their own selfish interest, has further emboldened misadventurers of the sharp practice to entrenched their threshold in the venture.
The manifestations of social and moral decadence in the Nigerian society, has assumed a deepening turn most recently. The records of vices of different sorts brewing winds of stormy weather across the Country, is seriously pushing the societal fabrics towards the lines of disturbances and unpalatable cohabitation. While numbers of vices continue to assume different dimension with new facial outlook, the weakness of the government as the first institution of resort with the baton of force to curtail such menaces has become a disturbing subject most recently.
One of the disturbing subjects in the basket of vices troubling Nigeria at the moment is the preponderance of internet fraud which most recently has left many with sour of inconsolable tears. The escapade has grown to the height of constituting a flag of fear which has evoked the sensation of distrust, strongly breaking down the fabrics of communal living. The profile of internet fraud in Nigeria has presently received a negative soar to a disturbing height. Many are now evidently settling down into the escapade as a career venture. The weak architecture of the Government to forcefully bring fraudsters to book has widened the network of the misadventure as more youths and adolescents are getting lured to follow the example of those who have been advancing in the escapade with luxurious living without a fearful clamp down on them. The connivance of security operatives with internet fraudsters by collecting bribes to let them have a free hand of operation, is a decadence that speaks ill of constituted authority which is lamentably aiding the proliferation of the menace.
On Thursday, it was reported that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibadan Zonal Office, has arrested 33 suspected Internet fraudsters in Abeokuta, Ogun State. The disclosure was contained in a statement signed by the EFCC spokesperson, Wilson Uwujaren, which was made available to journalists on Thursday in Ibadan. According to the statement, the suspects were arrested by the operatives of EFCC on Tuesday at Adigbe, Oloke, Ibara Housing Estate Extension, and Idi Ori areas of Abeokuta.
The arrest, it was said, followed actionable intelligence earlier received on the alleged criminal activities of the suspects. Items reportedly recovered from the suspects include: 18 cars, mobile phones, laptops, and several other incriminating documents.
The need for the Government to modify and sanitise the operational formations against cyber-crime is paramount. Such sensitisation should largely focus on the security personnel and the parameters of engagement deployed for operations to hunt after the perpetrators of the crime. Hence, the operation should be system-driven on the basis of which the security formation to drive the operations must be intelligent driven with enhanced human capacity development of the security operatives. This is important to strategically collapse the networks of cyber criminals. It is therefore essential for the Government to invest in building virile security architecture specifically in response to tracking the networks of cyber crime. This is essentially important to redefine the dampening image the menace is rubbing off on the Country before other nations of the world. It is no doubt that if nothing is done to the expanding tentacles of the illicit venture, the menace will continue to give the Country a worsening stench which will practically rob the Country of international opportunities in the short and long run. Hence, since Nigeria is now largely known to be a home and origin of internet fraudsters, the fact that foreigners are now being sceptical about Nigerians with sense of suspicion is not appealing for the Country. Treating Nigerians as potential fraudsters will rob Nigerians of opportunities; the Government must act fast.
