The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has explained why it carries out sting operations against internet fraudsters, popularly known as Yahoo boys.
Speaking in an interview on Sunday Politics, a programme on Channels Television monitored by DAILY POST, the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukoyede, said the Commission adopts the approach to avoid losing evidence and to ensure due process is followed.
He said: “There’s a difference between investigating politically exposed persons, public corruption, and cybercrime. When you are investigating cybercrime, you don’t send invitations to people the way you do when investigating politically exposed persons because the dynamics are different.
“The way people carry out cybercrime is quite different. Now, if you are a Yahoo boy and we send you an invitation to come for interrogation or to clarify issues, before you get to us, all the equipment and items used to perpetrate the fraud would have been deleted or disposed of.
“That is why we carry out sting operations. We do so professionally. It is expedient to conduct investigations in a way that prevents the loss of evidence while, at the same time, ensuring due process of law.
“That is why, all over the world, law enforcement agencies carry out sting operations when it comes to certain categories of crime.”
