An Open Letter To The E.f.c.c

CYBER CAFÉ OPERATORS AND E.F.C.C .

We all started with the dream to be part of the It revolution in Nigeria and a make a living, and now with millions haven being invested we are being forced into non-existence by Government using its agencies with frivolous and hurriedly made laws and their main case internet scam/ ‘419’.

Our sin, scammers/419’ers come into our cafes to ‘‘throw job’/scam’. Yes I accept that fact, but it also has to be noted that we have a bulk of customers who come to do legit businesses online and the word scammer/’419’ is not written on anyone’s forehead or clothing for us to be able to sort one as fraudster and bar him from entering the café and also due to the law of privacy and behaviour in a public place we cannot stand behind every customer or remote view every customers system to see what he/she is doing.

The issue of EFCC arresting scammers / 419’ers is applauded, but arresting everyone in a café both innocent and guilty and confisticating the equipments of the café does not make sense, indirectly everyone is being told to stay out of the café and how would you explain you walking into a café to transact a legit business or just chat with your loved ones and you are arrested and locked up. The argument the agency (EFCC), now puts up is that the innocent ones are released, after spending a day in custody or the embarrassment? And what about scammers/’419’s’ who use home service providers via CDMA (starcomms, multilinks) or wireless access (netcomm) in their homes, do they go to these organisations to seize their equipments or arrest and harass the management/staffs.
One would see all these as Government trying to frustrate the investments of tax paying citizens to please foreign bodies. Also we could see it as the corporate internet Service Providers (bigboys) sponsoring the Government to run cybercafés out and have a field day, with people now subscribing to their services.

Intimidation and harassment by EFCC will not solve the issue or reduce the scourge. The EFCC should call all stake holders to a meeting, sit down and discuss the issue, solutions are proffered and guidelines are laid down, any cyber café which does not abide by these guidelines now has itself to blame.

And the issue of registering with EFCC, NCC though a nice concept does not solve the issue, its just another avenue to now milk our lean purses and reason for harassment. I tried registering to get a licence with the NCC about a year and a half ago and I was given a bill of about 500,000 (five hundred thousand naira), for ‘Christ sake’ how much do we make out of this business with PHCN and all other overheads, and now including registering with EFCC.
Let’s face facts, scam/419 is a problem right now, but let’s fight it with reasoning not force and gun welding policemen with a Whiteman tagging along to give the Government a good image outside, while the country still has a negative image. Because these scammers/419’ers would now go underground (still using CDMA’s and wireless connections) and be more lethal and determined, while we the café owners watch our life investments rot.

The recent violence at festac, where EFCC operatives came top raid the Net Express café on 52 road and had their buses stoned “some windows shattered”, would become a common sight, even heard it “happened at ajegunle”. If the EFCC does not involve the cyber café owners. The use of force would always lead to the reply of force, these are young men who are frustrated by the day with the economy on ground and most lazy ones amongst them would lead to violence. Judging by the crowd of supporters on that day, one wonders where the EFCC wants to lock all of them.

please put  this in a national newspaper

Interesting.