They rule most nightclubs now, in city centres across Nigeria, winning in gilded sin, swimming in bowl of pink gin. Exotic champagnes and other prized drinks are what place them apart from others.
During day times, they lodge in hotels in city’s highbrow areas, riding round as lord extravagances. Yahoo boys live in upscale apartments and drive luxury cars. They are delight of young ladies, who seems not to care about mysterious aura around them. Predominantly, their age bracket ranges from 16 to late twenties.
Recently, their operations are more of rituals than ordinary internet fraud, which have made them to be known as ‘Yahoo Plus’. What started as internet scamming of white ladies on dating sites has now assumed treacherous killing of human beings in most horrific manner. As a matter of fact, Yayoo Plus depicts that, many of these youths consider these killings as a necessity in the advancement of their fraud businesses.
From early last year; 2024 reports from the media have indicated a steady rise of horrific killings for money-making rituals by the teenage youths. The evil sub-culture has become common in Benin, Asaba, Ado-Ekiti, Osogbo, beside Abuja, Port Harcourt, Lagos, Enugu and Ibadan among others.
Last year January, in Ogun State, it was reported that a gang of three teenagers from 17 to 19 years old strangled one of their girlfriends, cut off her head and cooked it. Within the same period, it was reported again that a teenager who is identified as Osas killed his girlfriend, Elohor Oniorosa for rituals. That faithful day he had gone out with her, just for her to be found dead with her throat slit, while the fraudster went on the run.
Soon after that the city of Jos was thrown into mourning when a 300 levels student of the University of Jos, Jennifer Anthony was found dead in a hotel room with her body mutilated and some parts of her body missing. Jennifer was lured into the hotel by her 20-year-old boyfriend, Moses Okoh who drugged her, killed her, plucked off her eyes, and other body organs before taking off.
Despite apprehension by the police, and possibly prosecution, the trend has continued unabated assuming more horrific dimension.
One of the reasons is that our society is only concerned about the glitz and glamour of good life, rather than the source of that flamboyance. In some cities in Nigeria, Yahoo business flourishes such that those who toil in normal work are derided for not being achievers. In some cases, teenagers are encouraged by parents to go into it. This verdict agrees with what Adamu Kwankwaso, an Educational Psychologist and a lecturer with College of Art, Science and Remedial Studies told Daily Trust recently. He said most of these vices are traceable to the way children are raised and the trauma they are facing in the society. “The root cause of all these is how we raise our children and what we teach them to do,” he pointed out.
A lady in Edo State last year said, “In Benin City, at least 90% of the parents are aware that their daughters are dating Yahoo boys and they are 100% in support of it. Amos Olaleye, a 29-year-old yahoo boy in Lagos told the police after his arrest that he connived with his mother to used his sister for money ritual.
Amos who is being detained in State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti Street, Yaba, admitted that after killing his sister, he had sex with the deceased, at the same time sucked her private part. He was on his way to throw the corpse into the river as the final rite, when he was arrested through stop-and-search Police .He revealed that he is in Yahoo business, and that his mother took him to a native doctor who asked him to carry out such act.
Also, in May this year, an 18-year-old boy, Kingsley Akpobome Emobor, an indigene of Oghara in Ethiope West Local Government Area of Delta State said he murdered his mother, slept with the corpse for two nights to fulfil his native doctor’s directives of improving his yahoo business.
Hardly a week passes without a report of horrific killing for money ritual. While poor parenting leading to breakdown of moral values is said to be the root cause, other factors are also responsible for this rising trend, some of them include, extreme poverty, and get rich quick syndrome .Others are, preaching of prosperity messages by religious leaders, lavish lives of some musical idols, and overnight millionaire fantasies as it is being displayed in many Nollywood movies. Some have identified drugs abuse as one of the major causes too. According to National Drug Law Enforcement (NDLEA) Report, over 14.9 million people between the ages of 15-64 are drug addicts.
Worried by the ugly development, a Pentecostal Church in Onitsha, Grace of God Mission International led by Bishop Paul Nwachuckwu went on the street protesting ritual killings in his state and Nigeria at large. The likes of Nwachukwu who are frustrated by growing army of ritualists consuming the society’s hope for tomorrow may find solace in the emerging campaign of National Ethics and integrity Policy being coordinated by Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and Anti-Corruption Academy of Nigeria (ACAN).
Recently, in Abuja, the nation’s capital, ACAN, brought together 58 Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), Faith-Based Organization, (FBOs), as well as Civil Society Organizations, (CSOs) and organized private sector for a two-day training on social norms and behavioral change. The training was aimed at addressing the declining national values and ethics, by emphasizing behavioural change. The expectation is that, as a wide spectrum of the society, the CBOs, FBOs and CSOs will trickle down this message, with a view of stimulating desirable change. If the message is strategically domesticated, then it will tame this unfortunate fad called Yahoo Plus.
Ends.
