Sources told SaharaReporters that the rogue police officers and EFCC officials have formed a clandestine team that collaborates to apprehend suspected ‘Yahoo boys’, targeting their homes or detaining them on the streets, often for exploitative purposes.
Certain individuals within the Enugu State police command and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) have been implicated in the kidnapping of Nigerian youths, particularly those suspected of being involved in online fraud, commonly referred to as ‘Yahoo boys’.
Sources told SaharaReporters that the rogue police officers and EFCC officials have formed a clandestine team that collaborates to apprehend suspected ‘Yahoo boys’, targeting their homes or detaining them on the streets, often for exploitative purposes.
According to sources, the security personnel have adopted a tactic akin to kidnapping, mimicking criminal organisations, as a means to circumvent the lack of evidence needed to formally arrest and charge suspected ‘Yahoo boys’, bypassing standard legal procedures.
SaharaReporters learnt that the squad’s victims are abducted and held captive in undisclosed locations until they meet the ransom demands, effectively being treated like kidnap victims.
This rogue squad, comprised of errant security personnel, detains the suspects in makeshift holding cells, mirroring the tactics employed by kidnappers, to extort money in exchange for their release.
A police source said, “So rogue EFCC officials and some policemen formed an illegal squad and they would go for raids on ‘Yahoo boys’. But because they have no base to take them, they would practically hold them to ransom, kidnap-style and never release them until they pay ransom.”
According to one of the sources, some policemen involved in the illegality have been arrested.
However, the sources could not say if the EFCC had done any similar house cleaning to arrest and sanction its officials involved in the illegality.
“Some of the policemen on our side who are involved in such have been arrested but I cannot say if the EFCC apprehended their officers involved,” one of the sources said.
When SaharaReporters contacted the EFCC spokesperson, Mr Dele Oyewale, for his comment to our findings, he denied the agency's involvement in such illegal arrests.
He said, “The configuration of EFCC does not allow for that. The standard operating procedure of the commission does not allow that; it is a very disciplined organisation.
“It's never possible for the EFCC personnel to be conniving with policemen to be doing that. That allegation has no basis because there is no substance. There is no evidential proof. Just last week, four people were arrested for impersonation in Enugu. We are not that kind of organisation.”
The allegations were also denied by the Enugu State Police Command spokesman, Daniel Ndukwe during his telephone interview with SaharaReporters on Sunday.
Ndukwe said, “The information is vague and I would urge those bringing these to be more specific for proper investigation. The claim that we arrested some officers doing that is not true. We don’t have any officer charged for that habit presently.”