The chairman of EFCC, Ola Olukoyede, has highlighted the existence of criminal centres in the country, which he called “419 training schools,” where primary school students are recruited and prepared for illicit activities. He made the statement while addressing newsmen on the steps the commission was taking to stamp out corruption in the country. The anti-graft boss said in the course of tackling fraud nationwide, the agency has identified such schools where young children are recruited and trained to become cybercriminals. According to him, this practice is also done with the consent of the minors’ parents who are made to sign an undertaking. He said: “We have what we call the 419 training schools where they harvest our children from primary school. When they leave their regular studies, they close at 2 o’clock; they end up in some of these 419 training schools. They start indoctrinating them, these are facts.
These illicit centres first of all ask them, even their parents, to sign an undertaking. Then they get indoctrinated into cybercrime as young as they are. When they get into secondary school. That’s why you see them in 100, 200 Level, hacking. And you think they just started that way? No! We closed our eyes to some of these things. They started 10 to 15 years back. We didn’t take cognizance of it. We thought all was well with Nigeria.” Olukoyede further stated that this practice has been in existence for over a decade but unknown to the authorities or they chose to ignore it.
