YAHOO BOYS: THE ARREST is the second part of the story, THE YAHOO BOYS and here, Michael Makinwa, aka The Gadgetman brought them to justice. He retrieved the money and made sure that the Yahoo Boys were arrested.

A day after they returned to Nigeria, Damola had conversations with the tech guy who had traced the location of the fraudsters. Both of them worked together and Damola was able to pinpoint the exact location of the Yahoo Boys.

She called Makinwa on the phone. “Hello boss,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“I’ve got the location.”

“The exact location?”

“Yes sir.”

“Stop using the word ‘sir’ for me, it is really annoying. Anyway, great job. You are brilliant.”

“I know. That’s why you hired me.”

“Hurh. Send me the location.”

“Seriously, boss, don’t tell me you are going there alone. At least call your detective friend to go with you, especially the EFCC.”

“That’s a great idea, Damola, but remember what Linda said. She doesn’t want the EFCC or the police involved. She doesn’t want the story on the news at all.”

“So, how are you going to retrieve the money from those boys?”

“Don’t worry, I will ask politely.”

“I am coming with you,” Damola said.

“Nah, that’s a bad idea.”

“Why?”

“My plan requires me to go alone. Don’t worry, I will be fine,” Makinwa said.

“Those boys could have guns and other weapons.”

“Well, I got my gadgets. I will be fine. Just send me the location.”

***

In his palatial home where he was resting beside the pool, Michael Makinwa received a message from Damola, his personal assistant- the same assistant he had been trying to woo for a very long time without success.

When he opened the message, he saw that it was the map location of the Yahoo Boys who had scammed a woman of $272,500. That was 98,372,500naira. He whistled. That was a freaking lot of money.

They would probably go on a spending spree and buy things that wouldn’t last a few months. They would just waste the money- the same money someone else labored to have. That was terrible.

He reflected on the number of Yahoo Boys in the country at present. These people were giving Nigeria bad names everywhere and making other Nationals see each Nigerian as a potential scammer. This in turn leads to loss of great opportunities for the innocent.

The Yahoo Boys gave a lot of silly excuses for the terrible things they did. Apart from being silly, the excuses were totally ludicrous. They blame the government which was a valid point but that was just like doing something wrong as a justification for another wrong thing.

The fact was that there were so many people out there who were invested in legit businesses and they are enduring and becoming successful. The Yahoo Boys instead, want to make money and live large and they don’t care about the lives they destroy in the process. They don’t care about the tears and sorrow they cause in the lives of their victims.

Of course, the victim could also be blamed for being greedy or ignorant. There were several advice out there against dealing with people you have never met, people whose locations you have no idea of and so on.

Thankfully, the EFCC was doing great and almost every day, there would be news of some Yahoo Boys being arrested and charged to court or being convicted.

However, the truth was that there were so many of them in different parts of Nigeria and the EFCC still had a long way to go.

Makinwa remembered joking about this with his father. The senior Makinwa had suggested that the EFCC should do a whistleblowing policy where people would report about a Yahoo Boy or Boys living around them.

The truth was that Nigerians know these Yahoo Boys. You can easy tell one from the way they dress and how live. Imagine a young undergraduate owning lots of dogs (dogs were expensive), owning expensive vehicles, living in a small flat and having air conditioners, having lots of devices that they cannot ordinarily afford and so on.

Of course, there were those who own all these but who are not Yahoo Boys. These are young freelancers and online businessmen and women who are legit in their businesses and doing well. The truth, however, was there were few of them.

A lot of Nigerians had learned to mind their own businesses especially when they had nothing to gain. The whistleblower policy will produce a lot of arrests every day.

Makinwa walked inside and got dressed. He was fortunate that he had a rich dad who had provided everything he needed until he started his own company and became a billionaire. His plan was to make the world a better place and helping a helpless woman to get back her money from some scammers was one of them.

***

Makinwa walked towards his car and got inside.

“Welcome sir, where would you like to go today?” The computerized voice of the car said.

Makinwa loved a lot of gadgets. He had loved it since he was a kid and as he got older, he began to collect them. He loved everything computerized and the James Bond movies were his favorite while growing up.

He brought out his phone and pressed a button that connected the map and location that Damola had sent him to the car’s navigation system.

“The location is three hours away barring the traffic,” the computerized voice said.

Makinwa was glad that he was already in Lagos instead of Ibadan where he was based. Even though he had a mansion in Lagos which was maintained by some of his cousins, he chose to stay in one of his dad’s houses.

***

Over three hours later, Makinwa reached the location after following the map directions. Luckily, the traffic didn’t delay him too much. He thought about his plans and was hopeful that it would work.

There are lots of things to consider. He had heard that since the EFCC stepped up their raids and arrests, some Yahoo Boys had been purchasing dogs so that they can be warned whenever the EFCC agents approach their locations.

There was also the fact that the boys could be armed. He was prepared for that. Then the money. He hoped they hadn’t spent all the money. Yahoo Boys were quite loose with money as they spend everything on wine, drinks, vehicles, clubs and women.

He walked towards the house indicated on the map. It was a story building and looked like it had four flats. The house was surrounded by an electric fence. Renting a flat like this would cost up to 600,000naira annually.

He wondered how the EFCC managed to get access into compounds like this to arrest Yahoo Boys. He knocked on the gate but after waiting for a while, no one came to open.

That was when he heard the sound of music playing somewhere in the compound. Yahoo Boys were known for loud music, both in the apartments they lived in and even when they drove in their expensive cars.

He checked the fence to see if they didn’t have CCTV installed but he didn’t find anything that looked like cameras.

After banging at the gate and getting no reply, he decided to switch to Plan B. He looked around and saw that no one was walking about. The house was located in a deserted area, far from the main road and there were few houses around.

He lifted his trousers and pressed a small button on his shoes. Suddenly, he was lifted in air and soon, he was a few feet above the electrified fence. He saw that there were four expensive vehicles in the compound. He hoped they hadn’t used the money he came to retrieve to purchase the vehicles.

Makinwa walked in the air. Soon, he was inside the compound. He loved the shoes. He had paid a lot to have it specially made. He reached into the front pocket of his polo shirt and brought out a pair of glasses.

This was another special device that he loved. He put on the glasses and pressed a very tiny button that made the glasses take pictures of all the cars in the compound and also made video records.

The glasses had a large memory chip that enabled it to store a lot of information. The recordings and pictures would be useful later.

He walked towards one of the flats where a party seemed to be in full swing. Makinwa would never understand what these young ones saw in music that made absolutely no sense and added nothing to their lives.

The door was half-opened. Apparently, they were unafraid since they had already locked the gate. Makinwa stepped inside.

He counted eleven people on the flat. Six males and five females. Three of the guys were rocking three ladies as they danced to the loud music. One guy was smoking heavily and another guy was sniffing a white substance on a stool. The last guy was heavily drunk and he was sprawled on the couch. The other two ladies stood alone, dancing. All the ladies were dressed in very provocative clothes. Makinwa wondered what their parents would say when they saw their kids.

None of them saw him walk in. The living room was large and there was a large TV screen against a wall. On a table were large packages of pizza and fried rice and chicken in takeaways.

Makinwa walked confidently to the speakers and saw that an IPhone had been connected to them. Yahoo Boys loved IPhone. He pressed puase and the music stopped abruptly. There was a deafening silence.

Everyone’s gaze automatically went up, as if to check if the light was off, even though they had switched on a generator. Then they saw him.

The Yahoo Boys jumped up in confusion. The ones holding the girls pushed them away. Only the guy who was drunk was unaware.

One of the boys peeped out the window to make sure Makinwa was not one of a group of EFCC agents or police officers.

“Who the hell are you?” One of the boys asked with anger in his eyes.

“Well, that’s rather rude of you.” Makinwa said. They were all confused.

“Is it EFCC?” one of the ladies asked.

Another lady placed her hands on her heads, about to cry. “Oh my God, oh my God, they will arrest me and the whole world will see my picture. Ha! My dad will kill me.”

Makinwa wanted to laugh. The EFCC was known to parade suspects of wire fraud and make them carry the devices they used to swindle people or carry a kind of placard that shows their names and their crimes.

“There is nobody out there,” another of the boys said. Two of the boys ran inside two of the rooms. Makinwa wondered if they were going to check for more agents surrounding the building or if they were going to bring out weapons.

“How did you get in here? We locked the gates na,” another guy said.

The two boys who had rushed inside each returned with pistols on their hands. The eyes of the ladies widened and even the other three guys were surprised.

“Frank, Kunle, where did you get guns?” One of the surprised guys said.

“We bought it four months ago,” one of them said.

Makinwa was calm. “Really? So you intend to fight it out with EFCC agents and the police.”

“Shut up and raise your hands,” one of the armed guys said.

“I am here to get back the money you stole from Stella Denton,” Makinwa said.

Only one of the guys’ eyes changed and that told Makinwa that he was the main culprit. Unfortunately, he was also one of the armed guys.

“What? How did you know about that? Who are you? Start talking before I shoot you.”

“I am not leaving until I get back the money,” Makinwa said.

That seemed to make the guy angrier. Makinwa was ready though. At the same time the guy fired his weapon, Makinwa was already moving. With the aid of his special shoes, he jumped in the air.

The guy fired twice and the bullets moved just under Makinwa’s legs. Makinwa was already behind the guy just as the bullets thudded against the wall.

Makinwa grabbed the guy’s gun arm and twisted it. The guy screamed. The other guy beside him was too slow to move because he had been confused by Makinwa’s movement. Before he could turn, Makinwa smashed a kick to his head that sent him crashing against the wall.

As a result of that movement, the guy whose hand Makinwa was holding on to made a crushing sound. He screamed. Makinwa punched him in the nose and the guy fell, unconscious.

He turned towards the others who looked on stupidly. The drunk guy was snoring. Makinwa picked up the other gun.

“Now, I want everyone to sit in that corner and keep quiet unless I ask you a question.”

They all did as they were told. Makinwa walked towards the room that one of them had entered and found a laptop on the bed. He brought it out and sat beside the drunk, snoring guy.

Within two minutes, he found the transactions between the guy who had used the fake name of Stephan Noble.

Makinwa saw that the guy had only spent about $2000 out of the money, which had apparently been converted into Naira.

He pressed some buttons and transferred back the remaining money to Stella Denton’s account. He also found out that the guy had scammed several other people.

He reversed the money to those victims with an advice that they should not be too greedy or ignorant next time.

Them he made a call to the nearest EFCC office. While he made the call, the other Yahoo Boys and the ladies began to beg him. The ladies promised him that they would never associate with the Yahoo Boys anymore while the Yahoo Boys promised never to scam people again. Makinwa didn’t believe them, of course.

He took out a tape he had brought along and tied up all of them, including the drunk guy who was still fast asleep.

CONTINUED IN THE SOURCE: https://opinionsandstories.com/yahoo-boys-the-arrest/