EDITORIAL: Beyond The Parades — Ekiti Needs Restoration, Not Just Arrests

By Editorial

The EFCC routine is now more familiar ever than before in Ekiti State. Kudos to the new Zonal Office cited in Ado Ekiti and opened on the 10th of June, 2026. 

On June 23, 2025, the Ibadan Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) announced the arrest of 34 suspected internet fraudsters at Iworoko and Ijado in Ado-Ekiti, with eleven exotic cars, laptops, phones and documents recovered. 

In June 2023, in a similar sweep along Ikere Road and Iworoko, 47 suspects were arrested with 15 exotic cars, 16 laptops and 77 phones recovered. Other operations by the Ilorin and Ibadan commands during the periods netted 30 to 37 suspects at a time in Ado-Ekiti.

The official statements rarely publish ages, but press photos and reports consistently show young men, mostly between 19 and 28. The Ilorin Directorate at the time secured the interim forfeiture of a lounge and a bungalow in Ado-Ekiti — Town Tavern Lounge on Ikere Road and linked to an alleged N1.09bn fraud.

We commend the EFCC for its diligence. But after the parade and the prosecution, what next?

Let us be clear: internet fraud is a serious crime. It has battered Nigeria’s international reputation, ruined victims — some driven to bankruptcy and suicide — and corrupted our own communities. There must be no soft landing. Anyone found guilty must face the full weight of the law. This editorial is not a plea to shield criminals.

It is a question about what kind of citizen we return to society after justice has been served.

That question matters because punishment alone is not deterring the crime. Despite convictions, public auctions of seized cars and media parades, more young people continue to drift into ‘Yahoo Yahoo’.

This points to a deeper sociological problem, not merely a criminal one: mass graduate unemployment, pressure from social media to flaunt sudden wealth, complicity of landlords, hoteliers and car dealers who profit from the proceeds, weak anti-fraud monitoring in our tertiary institutions including EKSU and the Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, and a worrying decline in parental oversight.

If we treat this purely as an EFCC matter, we will keep arresting in an endless cycle.

Ekiti has the most to lose. We are not an oil-producing state. Our comparative advantage has always been knowledge. It is therefore particularly painful that the digital literacy, persuasive writing and understanding of online systems that should power the Ekiti Knowledge Zone are being deployed to defraud innocent people.

To acknowledge that these crimes require a degree of digital ability is not praise; it is a statement of fact that makes the waste even more tragic. That same energy, properly redirected and disciplined, is precisely what a legitimate tech economy needs.

To jail a 22-year-old for three years and release him into the same idle environment with no skill, no supervision, and now with a permanent criminal record is to almost guarantee recidivism (repeat offence), only with greater sophistication.

Some will argue, justifiably, that giving grants and training to convicted fraudsters while law-abiding first-class graduates of EKSU and BOUESTI roam unemployed is unfair and could encourage crime. It is a valid concern. That is why any rehabilitation must not be a reward, and must not come at the expense of law-abiding youths. It must be earned, strictly supervised and run transparently.

What should it look like?

We propose that the Ekiti State Government, through the Ministry of Youth Development, Ministry of Justice and Bureau of Employment, Labour and Productivity, initiates a partnership with the Nigerian Correctional Service, which has legal custody of convicts after trial, and the EFCC Ado-Ekiti Zonal Command for intelligence and referral.

We call it the Ekiti Youth Reorientation and Digital Accountability Programme, anchored in the Ekiti Knowledge Zone, with three pillars:

1. Reorientation and Accountability: Mandatory psychosocial reorientation for those who have shown genuine remorse and served a substantial part of their sentence, led by the Ministry of Justice, faith leaders, traditional rulers and clinical psychologists to restore Omoluabi values.

2. Tech-for-Good Conversion: Retraining under strict supervision in defensive skills only in cyber-hygiene, cybersecurity awareness, UI/UX, QA testing and digital forensics tied to compulsory community service in schools and MDAs.

3. Structured Reintegration: No handouts or automatic employment. Access to existing enterprise support funds on competitive terms, with two-year monitoring, mentorship and a zero-tolerance clause for reoffending.

This is not novel charity. The Correctional Service has a statutory mandate for reformation, and global best practice shows education and restorative justice reduce repeat offending.

For the record, as of this week, the EFCC website has not published any new conviction from the Federal High Court, Ado-Ekiti, since the new Ekiti Zonal Directorate was commissioned on June 10. The only recent arraignment in July, 2026 was that of self-styled herbalist Olorunbukunmi Taiwo and his wife before Justice Abubakar Usman on alleged N1.09bn fraud, a case still at bail stage.

Governor Oyebanji’s administration has made job creation and youth development a pillar of its six-point agenda. Here is a chance to show that the agenda is not just about creating jobs for the innocent, but also about reclaiming the guilty so they do not re-offend.

We cannot arrest our way out of Yahoo Yahoo. We must also reform our way out of it.

Ekiti must choose restoration over a revolving door.