For years Ekiti has been Nigeria's proud "Land of Honour" - the state everyone associated with first-class brains and top professionals. But right now, that reputation is getting a serious beating. And the gist on the streets of Ado-Ekiti and Ikere-Ekiti is shocking.

Here's the chatty breakdown as reported by cbinews.tv:

You know how it used to be - small-time 419, fake spiritualists in the market, all that old-school trick. Well, that era is gone. These days it's smartphones, laptops, fast data and Instagram DM. Secondary school kids are reportedly bunking off school by 12pm to go and learn scamming in hotels. Yes, secondary school students. Some are even cruising around in their own cars.

And it gets wilder. According to cbinews.tv, parents - especially mums in Ikere and Ado - have allegedly formed their own association called 'Iya Omo Ologo', loosely translated as Mothers of the Rich Kids. You can't make this up.

EFCC Chairman Ola Olukoyede, who is himself from Ikere-Ekiti, didn't mince words. He said teenagers who should be revising for WAEC are now spending hours creating fake profiles and chatting up foreign victims, convinced that school is no longer the route to money.

In his words: "If you go to the secondary school that I attended now, sir, by 12 noon, the students have left school. You see them in hotels, in groups, trying to scam people."

He also raised a more dangerous alarm - that some of these internet fraudsters are drifting into banditry, kidnapping, and even laundering money for politically exposed persons using crypto wallets. Billions stolen from government coffers allegedly end up in Bitcoin wallets and are moved abroad to buy houses and cars.

So what's the fallout?

Since the EFCC opened its new office in Ado-Ekiti in June, business owners are complaining. Hotels, lounges, restaurants - everywhere is suddenly quiet. The big spenders have either japa-ed or gone low-key for fear of being picked up.

But as cbinews.tv asks, should an economy really be depending on questionable money in the first place?

The EFCC says no. Its Head of Media, Dele Oyewale, insists they don't harass or do night raids: "Our officers are professionals; they know what to do." Their job, he says, is to make space for legitimate businesses to thrive.

Still, young professionals in Ekiti are worried. Some say if you dress well and drive a nice car these days, you're automatically a suspect.

Former presidential adviser Senator Babafemi Ojudu captured it perfectly in his piece, 'When Crime Becomes an Economy'. He said the empty hotels might be painful, but they expose a deeper moral crisis - when a whole urban economy is built on fraud proceeds, something has gone terribly wrong.

The consensus? As cbinews.tv reports, the EFCC should stay, but it needs balance. Go hard on the criminals, but protect the innocent - the legit forex traders, crypto investors, and tech entrepreneurs who are just trying to hustle the right way.

The real test won't be how many Yahoo Boys are arrested. It'll be whether Ekiti can rescue its kids and reclaim its name as the true Land of Honour.

Credit: cbinews.tv

#EkitiNews #YahooYahoo #EFCC #AdoEkiti #IkereEkiti #NigeriaNews #CBINewsTV #LandOfHonour #IyaOmoOlogo #InternetFraud