The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukayode, has revealed how yahoo boys emptied a judge’s six-year savings in one night.

Olukayode said internet fraudsters withdrew over N7.2 million from the account of a serving judge in the middle of the night, wiping out money she had saved for six years for her child’s education.

He spoke during the public presentation of two books written by retired High Court judge, Justice Alaba Omolaye-Ajileye.

According to him, the judge, who serves in one of the South-South states, called him around 1am after discovering the withdrawals.

“What was the problem? She had just been scammed of the money she had been putting together for six years to send her child to school.

“She said it was alerts that woke her up. She received debits at that time of the day. Was it that the bank was at work, or what could be going on?

“Before she knew it, she had been scammed of about N7.2 million. So she put a call through to me that I had to do something.

“Incidentally, it was the state where they got an order against the EFCC from investigating certain crimes. And she said, ‘My lord, I have an order, an injunction not to investigate financial crimes in that state.’

“She said, ‘No, no, no! This is an exception. You must do something immediately!’

“Do you understand the point I am trying to make here? When you become a direct victim, that is when you’ll know that something has to be done.

“Before 6pm, we recovered the entire money for her. I am very sure that if an application comes before her, my lord, to stop the EFCC from carrying out its mandate, she will dismiss it because she has become a victim.

“So, it is important for us to understand the depth of this problem.”

Olukayode said the incident shows why Nigerians must work together to fight financial crimes.

“Not until we, as Nigerians, come together and agree to face this challenge — law enforcement agencies playing their role, citizens doing their part, and the judiciary too doing its part — it is only then that we will be able to put this problem behind us. We can do it. Nigeria can do it, and we will do it and succeed,” he said.

He also spoke on the growing role of artificial intelligence in crime investigation and the legal issues around it.

“Now we have already started deploying the tools of AI in the investigation of crime. But what I am cracking my brain about is how do I generate evidence and make it admissible?

“It is a bit difficult from what Section 84 of the Evidence Act provided for. This is because now we talk of a robot. Is a robot a human being? Being an electronic device doing the work of a human being, robots can now think for you. Robots can do anything human beings can do.

“So we are looking at that area. I wish our legislators and professors of law will take time and come together to look at this area and come up with laws that will help us in the area of AI,” the EFCC Chairman said.

At the event, former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Kanu Agabi, SAN, urged the EFCC and other agencies to intensify efforts to recover public funds kept abroad.

“We have billions abroad. This generation would have failed if we do not bring back that money. That is what we must do now,” Agabi said.

Agabi also praised Justice Omolaye-Ajileye, saying he left the bench with a clean record.

Former Chairman of the Body of Benchers, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN, called for stricter enforcement of the cybercrime law.

Also speaking at the event, the Director-General of the Department of State Services (DSS), Mr Tosin Ajayi, said convicting offenders would help reduce crime.

The books unveiled at the event were Electronic Evidence (Second Edition, with the Evidence Act, 2011) and A Compendium of Cases on Electronic Evidence (Volume II, 2020–2025).

Present at the event were serving and retired judicial officers from the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal and other courts across the country.

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