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Edo Government Declares Total War on "Yahoo Boys," Vows Same Sanctions as Cultists and Kidnappers After UNIBEN Killing Linked to Internet Fraud Proceeds
Edo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kassim Afegbua, announcing the government's new policy on internet fraudsters in Benin City.
The Edo State Government has placed internet fraudsters squarely in its crosshairs, announcing that so‑called "Yahoo Boys" will now face the same severe sanctions and enforcement measures previously reserved for cultists and kidnappers. The policy shift, declared by Commissioner for Information and Strategy Kassim Afegbua at a press briefing in Benin City, is a direct response to the killing of University of Benin student Alexander Omogiate on May 10 — a murder the state says was rooted in a dispute over the sharing of internet fraud proceeds.
Afegbua did not mince words. "The era of treating cyber fraud as a lesser offence is over," he said. "We have seen what these activities lead to — young men killing each other over the spoils of cybercrime. From today, the full weight of the state's security apparatus will treat Yahoo Boys exactly as we treat cultists and kidnappers." The government's position draws a straight line between the glamourised, often socially tolerated world of internet fraud and the violence it leaves in its wake. The Omogiate case, in which masked gunmen shot a student dead in broad daylight at UNIBEN's main gate, is now being held up as the tragic proof.
The Commissioner reaffirmed the administration's zero‑tolerance posture on cultism and warned that "no amount of persuasion will make us shift from that agenda." By yoking cyber fraud to the same policy, the government is signalling that the days of treating Yahoo Boys as a nuisance rather than a threat are finished. For communities across Edo State — particularly in university towns where the line between campus life and cybercrime networks has long been blurred — the announcement is as much a warning as it is a promise. The test now is whether the security agencies can back the rhetoric with arrests, prosecutions, and the kind of sustained pressure that has slowly pushed cult violence to the margins.
Stay tuned to Unuevbo TV for more on the Edo State security crackdown, the UNIBEN investigation, and the policies reshaping community safety.
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