How God used my wife to make me abandon being a Yahoo boy, four of my friends are now dead, two are raging mad

By Bankole Taiwo

Each time I remember the very day my path crossed with that of Dorcas (not real name) I am always eternally grateful to my maker. This reflection also usually make me to conclude that just as it is written in the scripture, God Indeed will show mercy upon whom He wills notwithstanding the opinion of anyone

I am Tola (not real name) and in my late 30’s. I am the second born of my parents and still have other four siblings after me. My father is into repairs of Peugeot cars somewhere in Ogun State and my mother was into petty trading and thrift collector.

My Mum was really doing good with her thrift collection and had quite a large number of those who patronised her because of her seeming faithfulness and dependability which is the fort of the business. People are always willing to do business with my Mum because they knew that anytime they approach her for the collection of their money they wouldn’t be disappointed.

So, in other words, she was like the breadwinner of the family and was supported with my father’s paltry earnings from his mechanic work.

However, things suddenly took a turn for the worst when my Mum fell into the hands of some fraudsters who promised to do cement business with her. They had promised to supply her two trailer loads but bolted away after supplying just 50 bags. My mother had taken the capital for the business from the daily thrift contributed by the people hoping to pay back as she was selling the cement.

Hell was let loose when month ended and the people besieged our house as they used to but were unable to collect their money. Many of them thought that the story of my Mum being swindled was cooked up and was therefore untenable. It was really a distressing time for the family. The police was involved and my Mum was for days locked up, my Dad sold a piece of land and his jalopy Peugeot car but what was realised from these sales was like a drop into the ocean.  My mother was still indebted to the tune of N3m.

And practically from that period, things went from bad to worse for our family. I could remember vividly that I was in Senior Secondary School 1 when this storm of life hit us like one of the David’s stone hurled at Goliath. Eating three square meals at home became a luxury. My elder brother who was at that time in SS three left secondary school and left for Lagos Island to work as bus conductor.

While in SS two, one fateful day, I followed one of my friends home and on getting there, we met two of his brothers and their friends, both male and female swaying their hips to this popular song then “Ori e o fonka sibe” I really can’t remember the name of the artiste now. There were so much to eat and take away that day. The following day when we met in school, my friend, Dele (not real name) told me that his brothers were into internet fraud popularly called yahoo yahoo. Dele said he was already learning the ropes and that he would put me through once he was sure he had mastered the thieving art.

I was more than happy because I thought that I would be able to get money to take care of my sickly mother who almost suffered stroke due to the hypertension she developed after she was defrauded. My father had also become a shadow of himself and was also nursing diabetes.

His mechanic work had gone comatose because Nigerians are no longer using Peugeot cars which he specialised on. His desire before the storm came was to diversify into transportation but he had sold the jalopy car he wanted to be using as taxi just to raise some money so that my Mom could be released by the police.

After my secondary education, courtesy of my friend, Dele with the assistance of his brothers, I got my feet established in internet fraud. I began making little money and was supporting my Dad and Mom with it. Deep down within me, I knew it was not the best way to make money but probably because of the situation back home, I would just shudder my shoulder and trudge on.

I will however be telling myself that once our finances improve back home, I will quit the dirty job and get something meaningful doing. This wasn’t however that easy because we are talking of free money that you make may be just by having sleepiness nights for a week or two and this you can always make up by sleeping during the day.

I have always had flair for education and so after I have gotten substantial amount in my account, that was like two years after leaving secondary school, I sat for GCE and made all my papers. I enrolled for JAMB too and picked Accounting as course of study while I chose Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU) Ago Iwoye and Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) Ile Ife as my first and second choice of institutions.

To cut the story short, I got admission into OOU to study Accounting. Funding wasn’t much of a problem as I had saved a bit for the rainy day and more so, I was still into the internet fraud but you can’t know because I remain my quiet self, no ear rings, no tangled or dreadlocks, I have also been able to fight off drug, though I drink but moderately, in other words, I have tried not create undue attention except that I cared a bit about my dressing, though not ostentatious but classy.

Moving forward, there is this pretty girl in my class, Dorcas (not real name) from Anambra. Her parents are into selling of car spare parts in Ibadan. She is so fluent in Yoruba that you will take her to be a Yoruba girl because she was born and bred at Ibadan. She is the type of girl boys will like to disturb for relationship but I wasn’t really that keen about her. I just saw her as my classmate and nothing more.

As time went by, we were gravitating towards one another. She had over time discovered that I don’t joke with my studies and we had met several times at some of the tutorials organised by our seniors, those in 200 and 300 levels. She had discovered that I was also very active in class and that I used to be among those who arrive very early for classes and sit at the front.

I had vowed to make good grades in my studies so, whenever there is a class I usually make it a point of duty to get to school on time to get a good place to sit so that I can hear whatever the lecturer is saying. We were about 150 in our set and many times there was usually power outage, so the public address system was as good as not being provided.

By the second semester of 200 level, I and Dorcas had been good friends. Tongues were already wagging but the two of us were unfazed and would rather allowed time to make whatever it pleases from our platonic relationship. We had found in ourselves strong allies in our academic and though, it was not expressed by any of us, we knew we might likely ended up as husband and wife.

In no good time, Dorcas got to know that I was into internet fraud and sincerely I wasn’t keen about hiding this from her in as much as it is something I had even wanted to forgo but for the fact that it remains my major source of funding my education.

She was always fighting with me and telling me to quit the dirty job anytime she caught me chatting with those Americans and Europeans we were defrauding then. Dorcas was always warning of serious repercussions of living off other people’s sweat no matter the excuses.

There was a day she said she dreamt that the anti-graft agency, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) arrested me and was eventually jailed for 10 years. I have always pleaded with her that once I am in final year, I will quit the fraudulent act and face my studies very squarely.

I should also not forget to disclose that I was still in touch with Dele, the one who introduced me into internet scams, our circle of friends had even increased into seven, we all grew up in the neighborhood. I used to hangout with them whenever I came home but more often than not, I was always careful not to run myself into trouble.

We were hanging out one day, I think I was in 300 level, second semester in our neighborhood, when this discussion of Yahoo plus was mentioned by Jide, not real name. He explained the frustration accompanying defrauding the people again as well as the fear of being arrested and hurled into jail by the EFCC. Jide said he had gotten contact of one herbalist somewhere in Ijebu and that like their colleagues, it was time to embrace Yahoo plus and engaged in money making rituals.

I was really speechless, I don’t know what to say. However, not to make them suspicious that I wasn’t going to be part of their evil plans because I also don’t know what they might do to me if I outrightly refused to be part of such daring evil plan, I played along. It was fixed that the seven of us would be visiting the herbalist the following day.

On getting home, I packed my bags and as soon as it was 6am the following morning, I left for school. I quickly switched off my phone and when I got to school I told Dorcas of what my friends said they wanted to do. She said this was why I have told you to stop this fraudulent activity and severe your friendship with these friends.

As soon as I switched on my phone, their calls started coming in, they said all manner of things, how the herbalist had assured them that there won’t be repercussions for the rituals and that I should not come begging them for money and all that if I refused to be part of what they wanted to do.

After this episode, I stopped getting involved in internet fraud. Yes things became very difficult but Dorcas proved to be very helpful here. I started following her to a campus fellowship of a very popular Pentecostal church. During one of their fire services one Sunday morning, I found myself at the altar asking God for forgiveness and strength never to go back to being a Yahoo boy.

While in 400 level, things became so hard such it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to pay my school fee but the fellowship rallied round and assisted me. Eventually, I left the university and I was posted to Ekiti to serve in one the new generation banks, I was subsequently retained after the service while Dorcas who served with one global accounting firm in Lagos State was equally retained.

However, before leaving the university, my six friends were already swimming in money and buying properties all over Lagos but sadly 10 years after they embraced Yahoo plus, four of them are six feet below.  Dele, Jide and two others died in a fatal crash while coming from night club while two others are now terrible lunatics. One is said to be in a popular area in Lagos while no one can precisely say where the one is, he was said to have sometime been sighted at Ibadan.

I am happily married to Dorcas with a set of twin, a boy and girl. My Dad and Mum are also alive and kicking, they have been able to stay strong through the storm and things are already getting fine for them.