I Shut Down My Lucrative Cyber Café Business Because Of Yahoo Boys– Ex-Rep, Lam Adesina

A former member of the House of Representatives from Ibadan  North-East/South-East Federal Constituency, Dapo Lam-Adesina, has said more youths were getting involved in Internet fraud and ritual killings because of the extravagant lifestyle of some corrupt politicians.

According to him, the youths engaged in ‘Yahoo Yahoo’ are looking up to become like some politicians and other criminals living flamboyant lifestyle because of cheap money they have access to.

The former lawmaker who spoke in an interview with THE WHISTLER, also revealed he had to close down a thriving internet business due to the activities of cyber criminals.

 He said the society at large must unite to address this problem before it would damage the image of Nigeria beyond redemption.

“When I gained admission to the University of Ibadan,  I started a cyber cafe business at the  Oluyole Estate, the business was thriving. I was making a lot of money from the business as a student and as governor’s son. From there I moved to Eleyele to continue the business and later to Felele. But I had to close down the business even thou it was bringing so much money to me because I saw the trend going on around the Internet. Internet fraud started a long time ago, the story I am telling you happened when I had the cyber cafe around 2001 and I ran it till 2009.

” I had to shut it down when I realised that Internet fraud was becoming more prevalent. I didn’t want a situation whereby someone would be arrested at my cafe and it would be reported and linked to my dad being the governor at that time.

“Internet fraud is now becoming more popular because of people getting fed up with their poor conditions. The poor especially the young people are becoming more impatience, they are seeing politicians all over the place living extravagantly and they want to copy that kind of lifestyle.

“Look at the rising cases of kidnapping, ritual killings that were not in our system before, they are now very popular in the land. We had good role models in politics, in education and other areas before now but who are the politicians  the youths of nowadays are looking up to as role models? They are the corrupt ones and that is why some of  the youths are also engaged in criminal activities.”

He, however, said that despite the prevalence of these crimes, many youths, who have good home training were still not engaged in them. He advised the youths to be patient and show contentment,  determination and not to soil their family image in their pursuit of money and fame.

Speaking on the problem of vote-buying, he said the enthronement of good governance and improved standard of living are factors that can curb the problem of vote-buying by corrupt politicians in the country.

 The former Rep, who is seeking to return to the seat on the platform of the All Progressives Congress, said although the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System has helped to curb ballot stuffing and other electoral fraud, some corrupt politicians had devised vote-trading to manipulate a large number of the electorate to win.

He blamed poverty for the prevalence of the new form of manipulation but said this would come to an end when voters no longer see the few naira notes doled out to them during elections as the reason they should vote for politicians giving them.

He said, “ BVAS is helping to sanitise our elections and I agree with you that it has not been able to address vote-trading which is also a form of manipulation.

“You know when a new invention comes, people would naturally look for a way to circumvent the system. I believe that vote-trading will be curbed and the electoral process will get better.

“What is important for me is the education of our people and reduction of poverty level, when this is done or taken care of, people will not care about who is bringing money during elections,  they will only be bothered about who is the right candidate that must be elected. So, reduction in poverty will help to curb buying and selling of votes.”