Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
The Edo State Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Kassim Afegbua, has revealed that the state government plans to impose the same level of sanctions on internet fraudsters, popularly known as “Yahoo Yahoo boys,” as it does on kidnappers and cultists.
He stressed that the government is determined to clamp down on all forms of criminal activities threatening the peace and reputation of the state.
Prince Afegbua said this while speaking with journalists in the state regular briefing with the media in Benin City.
Afegbua said the incident that happened at the University of Benin Main Gate was disheartening.
He said the news making the rounds alleged that he was killed over unresolved sharing of money made from internet fraud.
“Please, we are calling on the Edo public that our zero tolerance to cultism is still very much in force, and no amount of persuasion that will take our eyes off that particular decision, that particular agenda, and we’re even going to add the issue of “Yahoo Yahoo” to that now, because we are seeing that because cultism is being tackled head-on, they now hide under the auspices and umbrellas of “Yahoo Yahoo” to commit havoc. The one at the University of Benin Main Gate is a ready example.
“So, Monday Okpebholo, the governor of Edo State, is clear-headed on where he’s taking the state, and no amount of frustration from members of the public or some renegade, so to speak, will take us out of that.
“We are going to continue our approach, our commitment to ensuring that we nip all of this crisis in the bud.
“We may not have provided answers to all the nagging problems of cultism, but people will bear witness that Edo has been peaceful to a large extent but for pockets of kidnapping here and there”, Afegbua said.
While reeling out plans of the state government to ease the burden of transportation on the citizens of the state, he said the government has taken delivery of 50-52 seater buses, CNG and it is still expecting 50 more to make it 100.
We’re expecting another 50 buses of 52-seater, our target is 100 buses of 52-seater.”
He added: “Those buses will soon be released to members of the public to ease transportation concerns across the three senatorial districts.”
“I don’t want to unveil the distribution pattern but we are going to distribute them across the three senatorial districts to ease transportation and also to minimize the hazards people have to go through each time they need to travel.”
He called on the citizens of the state to desist from blocking the waterways with refuse noting that the federal government had earlier warned of flooding in some parts of the states.
