₦airaland Forum

Oracleee:
Ado Ekiti is the new haven of yahoo boys, even EFCC headquarters had to be brought in just to try and curve their excesses.

Ekiti is living on past glory of the1970s, and abuad is for the elites.

I'm sure of one thing quite well, 20-30 years from now, the dividends of the stupidness will catch up and the state will be worse than any other in crime rate as yahoo boys of today might have ntin but crime to fall on when the time comes.

Wow!

Thank you for the breakdown. I read about the EFFC arrests on IG, and in the comment section, many lads lamented that the state will see an exodus of the yahoo boys and the economy won't thrive any longer. Be like say yahoo yahoo illicit funds supported many businesses. For EFFC to enter there means the elites invited them (EFFC) to the state.

Oracleee:
I believe I will tell you about Ekiti not the other way round. And what's in Ekiti but a civil servant state.

Ado is an haven to Yahoo boys same also ikere, ifaki, Oye and many more. As a fact, if 6 cars passes beside you in ado, chances are out of the six, 3 were driven by Yahoo boys, 2 by politician and the last by a top civil servant.

Counter my points with facts. Except hotels, fuelling station, lounges, shopping malls, eateries and car lots in Ekiti which of course is frequented by Yahoo boys mention any industry or so again in the state. Perhaps let's narrow it down to the capital territory ado...... Also igbos selling spare parts and offcourse iPhone sellers and gadgets shops.

Keep deceiving yourself whereas deep down you know the truth.

Agriculture no dey boom for Ekiti? Ekiti abi Ondo was created from the other and Ondo is a major cocoa producer. The cocoa boom of 2024 didn't reflect in Ekitians' fortunes?

ariesbull:
What is the meaning of omoale...is it a title cos they parrot it anyhow here in Lagos .... Another word they sue easily is Olosho

Omo ale means bastard. That is the raw meaning but anyone working against the interests of their family is designated as an omo ale. The opposite is Omo oko meaning child of the husband from the ancestors of the husband and in tune with the family's progress. Omo is child, Ale is somebody you are having sex with outside marriage and oko is husband.

Olosho is a new word. It did not exist in the past to the best of my knowledge. It means ladies who are involved in prostitution in a coded manner.

Gerrard59:
Agriculture no dey boom for Ekiti? Ekiti abi Ondo was created from the other and Ondo is a major cocoa producer. The cocoa boom of 2024 didn't reflect in Ekitians' fortunes?

Where in Ekiti is the cocoa? The big unknown. Mention the town the cocoa was produced? Maybe the armlets very very far from civilisation. But where Ekiti civilisations are........ Not productive but yahoo boys and supporting entertainment for them. Before you drive 2 kilometres in ado metropolis, it's either you see an hotel, eateries, filling station, iPhone shops or lounges with expensive cars parked outside offcourse by those we know.

Gerrard59:
Wow!

Thank you for the breakdown. I read about the EFFC arrests on IG, and in the comment section, many lads lamented that the state will see an exodus of the yahoo boys and the economy won't thrive any longer. Be like say yahoo yahoo illicit funds supported many businesses. For EFFC to enter there means the elites invited them (EFFC) to the state.

From what I realised over the years, Ekiti economy is been ruled by Yahoo boys and Igbo traders. Without those yahoo boys, I doubt there will be an IGR. The major businesses the govt task there are targeted at Yahoo boys and without this business, Ekiti won't even be fit to be called a city talk more of state capital.

The only things you see in Ekiti like I mentioned earlier are

1. Hotels
2. Lounges
3. Eateries
4. Filling station
5. Gadget shops
6. Cele churches offcourse we know why ( I added this because of the sales of candles perfume etc in larger scale to aid the yahoo thing)
7. Babalawo houses
8. Car lot.
9. Igbo spare part traders.




After this list, nothing builds the economy again.
7.

Oracleee:
From what I realised over the years, Ekiti economy is been ruled by Yahoo boys and Igbo traders. Without those yahoo boys, I doubt there will be an IGR. The major businesses the govt task there are targeted at Yahoo boys and without this business, Ekiti won't even be fit to be called a city talk more of state capital.

The only things you see in Ekiti like I mentioned earlier are

1. Hotels
2. Lounges
3. Eateries
4. Filling station
5. Gadget shops
6. Cele churches offcourse we know why ( I added this because of the sales of candles perfume etc in larger scale to aid the yahoo thing)
7. Babalawo houses
8. Car lot.
9. Igbo spare part traders.




After this list, nothing builds the economy again.
7.

If Yahoo boys are the ones paying for the products and services that Ekiti VAT represents then they are spending like one trillion naira a year in Ekiti and that is not possible.
Ekiti has one of the best private universities in Nigeria ABUAD with like 1500 staff. Consider the revenue of that university. If it were a public company the capitalization would be in excess of 3 trillion naira meaning over 2:billion dollars
They have cocoa, rice, yams, maize, okro, cassava, palm oil and etc in excess and they have value adding industries that pay like 50 billion naira annually in VAT apart from trading and etc.

Oracleee:
From what I realised over the years, Ekiti economy is been ruled by Yahoo boys and Igbo traders. Without those yahoo boys, I doubt there will be an IGR. The major businesses the govt task there are targeted at Yahoo boys and without this business, Ekiti won't even be fit to be called a city talk more of state capital.

The only things you see in Ekiti like I mentioned earlier are

1. Hotels
2. Lounges
3. Eateries
4. Filling station
5. Gadget shops
6. Cele churches offcourse we know why ( I added this because of the sales of candles perfume etc in larger scale to aid the yahoo thing)
7. Babalawo houses
8. Car lot.
9. Igbo spare part traders.

After this list, nothing builds the economy again.
7.

Thanks a lot for the breakdown. Nigerians, at least southern Nigerians, aren't really that different in their cultural behaviours.

lawani:
If Yahoo boys are the ones paying for the products and services that Ekiti VAT represents then they are spending like one trillion naira a year in Ekiti and that is not possible.
Ekiti has one of the best private universities in Nigeria ABUAD with like 1500 staff. Consider the revenue of that university. If it were a public company the capitalization would be in excess of 3 trillion naira meaning over 2:billion dollars
They have cocoa, rice, yams, maize, okro, cassava, palm oil and etc in excess and they have value adding industries that pay like 50 billion naira annually in VAT apart from trading and etc.

Thanks for outlining their produce because the bold is being developed by a private firm whose founder met with Tinubu. So, I'm surprised Oracleee stated no form of agribusiness in the state.

lawani:
If Yahoo boys are the ones paying for the products and services that Ekiti VAT represents then they are spending like one trillion naira a year in Ekiti and that is not possible.
Ekiti has one of the best private universities in Nigeria ABUAD with like 1500 staff. Consider the revenue of that university. If it were a public company the capitalization would be in excess of 3 trillion naira meaning over 2:billion dollars
They have cocoa, rice, yams, maize, okro, cassava, palm oil and etc in excess and they have value adding industries that pay like 50 billion naira annually in VAT apart from trading and etc.

My reply would be long and I won't give another unless you counter with facts and evidenced not just hearsay.

You're giving me figures and projections on paper, I'm talking about the economy as it is actually experienced by people living in Ekiti.

I'm not saying Ekiti has no legitimate economic activity. Of course it does. There is agriculture, education, government employment, healthcare and other businesses. I'm also not saying I dismiss every figure published by the state government. I'm saying government figures should be independently verified before we use them as the final word on the economic reality of the state.

Take ABUAD, for example. You said it has about 1,500 staff and then moved from that to a supposed valuation of over ₦3 trillion. How exactly was that valuation calculated? And more importantly, how does the existence of one private university and its hospital demonstrate that the average Ekiti resident has substantial purchasing power? How many average Ekiti households can actually afford ABUAD's tuition or private healthcare services?

That's the distinction I'm making, economic activity on paper is not the same thing as broad-based household prosperity or consumer purchasing power.

You also mentioned cocoa, rice, yam, maize, okro, cassava, palm oil and other agricultural products. Fine. I'm not disputing that Ekiti farms these products. But producing an agricultural commodity is not the same thing as having a large industrial/export economy built around that commodity.

So show me the actual value chain.

How much of this produce is processed inside Ekiti? Which companies are buying it? How much is exported annually? To which countries? Through which ports or airports? What are the customs/export records?

Take the airport itself. It was inaugurated in 2022 as an agro-allied cargo airport with the stated objective of facilitating the movement and export of agricultural commodities. But as recently as 2025, the state government was still talking about making it a 24-hour operation and developing it into a hub for transporting farm produce to local and international destinations.

So I'm asking a very simple question, show me documented evidence of significant agricultural cargo actually moving through that airport. Not the projected capacity or what the airport was built to do. Show me the cargo manifests, export volumes, companies, destinations and frequency.

And this brings me back to my original argument.

I'm saying that in the urban consumer economy, particularly Ado-Ekiti, illicit money appears to have an influence that is much larger than the official economic statistics reveal and this is a ticking time-bomb.

Look at the things that are visible on the ground like property, rents, cars, lounges, hotels, restaurants, short-lets, nightlife and transportation. Who is paying the premium prices in these markets? Who is driving the demand for expensive cars and high-end accommodation? Who can afford to pay significantly above the normal price for ordinary services?

I'm a property owner in Ekiti, and I'm telling you what I have personally observed in the property market around Embassy Island there are landlords who specifically prefer tenants they believe can pay significantly higher rents, talk of yahoo boys. And the fact is out of every 10 youths in Ekiti, 8 is into Yahoo. Out of the other 2, one is an elite child and the last is right thinking.
That is not a GDP statistic it is a lived reality.

And even independent property-market data shows that rental prices in Ado-Ekiti have changed substantially.

Then look at the cybercrime evidence itself.

I'm not inventing the Yahoo-boy issue. In June 2023, EFCC arrested 47 suspected internet fraudsters around Ikere Road and Iworoko in Ado-Ekiti in a single operation. The operation reportedly recovered 15 exotic cars, 16 laptops and 77 phones.

And this wasn't an isolated historical incident. In June 2025, EFCC again arrested 34 suspected internet fraudsters in Iworoko and Ijado areas of Ado-Ekiti. This were the ones that were caught and broadcasted. If In doubt, drive from ado to iworoko and see the number of police checkpoints out for one major thing........ Yahoo boys.

So if you're asking me to prove that cybercrime is a real and significant issue among young people in Ekiti, there is documented evidence for that.

My "9 out of 10" statement is better understood as an expression of the scale of what people living there observe, not a scientific population statistic. If you want to challenge the observation, then bring independent survey data showing otherwise.

Now let's talk about the average Ekiti resident.

You mentioned IGR. Fine. But IGR is government revenue, it doesn't automatically tell us that the average citizen is prosperous. If the government is aggressively taxing small businesses, shops, transport operators and other informal businesses, that can increase IGR while simultaneously making life harder for ordinary people.

That is why transportation prices matter. If an Okada rider has to meet multiple daily levies and operating costs, he has to recover those costs from passengers. And if another class of consumers (yahoo boys) is willing to pay considerably more than the normal price, that can further distort the local market.

And that's where my "time bomb" argument comes in.

If a significant amount of discretionary spending in an economy is coming from an illegal and unsustainable source, then the economy is vulnerable when that source is disrupted.

If tomorrow EFCC, international law enforcement, tighter banking controls, improved cybercrime detection and technological changes make internet fraud substantially more difficult, what happens to the young people whose spending currently supports certain landlords, car dealers, lounges, hotels, restaurants and other businesses which offcourse I will say again is the bedrock of Ekiti economy.

That's the question I'm asking.

I'm not saying agriculture doesn't exist. I'm not saying ABUAD doesn't contribute to Ekiti. I'm not saying government statistics are automatically false.

I'm saying none of those things answers the question I'm raising about the structure of Ekiti's consumer economy and the influence of illicit money within it.

So let's debate with evidence.

Show me the independent data on Ekiti's major industries.

Show me the number and scale of major private-sector employers outside government, education and a few institutions.

Show me independent household income and expenditure data.

Show me the documented value of agricultural exports and where they go.

Show me the documented cargo volumes through the airport.

Show me the independent evidence of the source of the money driving property, luxury-car, hotel and nightlife demand.

And most importantly, show me independent evidence that disproves the very visible concentration of internet-fraud activity among young people in parts of Ado-Ekiti.

Because saying "Ekiti has agriculture and ABUAD" doesn't answer that argument.

I'm asking you to distinguish between what Ekiti produces, what the government reports, and what ordinary people actually experience in the economy.

Oracleee:
My reply would be long and I won't give another unless you counter with facts and evidenced not just hearsay.

You're giving me figures and projections on paper, I'm talking about the economy as it is actually experienced by people living in Ekiti.

I'm not saying Ekiti has no legitimate economic activity. Of course it does. There is agriculture, education, government employment, healthcare and other businesses. I'm also not saying I dismiss every figure published by the state government. I'm saying government figures should be independently verified before we use them as the final word on the economic reality of the state.

Take ABUAD, for example. You said it has about 1,500 staff and then moved from that to a supposed valuation of over ₦3 trillion. How exactly was that valuation calculated? And more importantly, how does the existence of one private university and its hospital demonstrate that the average Ekiti resident has substantial purchasing power? How many average Ekiti households can actually afford ABUAD's tuition or private healthcare services?

That's the distinction I'm making, economic activity on paper is not the same thing as broad-based household prosperity or consumer purchasing power.

You also mentioned cocoa, rice, yam, maize, okro, cassava, palm oil and other agricultural products. Fine. I'm not disputing that Ekiti farms these products. But producing an agricultural commodity is not the same thing as having a large industrial/export economy built around that commodity.

So show me the actual value chain.

How much of this produce is processed inside Ekiti? Which companies are buying it? How much is exported annually? To which countries? Through which ports or airports? What are the customs/export records?

Take the airport itself. It was inaugurated in 2022 as an agro-allied cargo airport with the stated objective of facilitating the movement and export of agricultural commodities. But as recently as 2025, the state government was still talking about making it a 24-hour operation and developing it into a hub for transporting farm produce to local and international destinations.

So I'm asking a very simple question, show me documented evidence of significant agricultural cargo actually moving through that airport. Not the projected capacity or what the airport was built to do. Show me the cargo manifests, export volumes, companies, destinations and frequency.

And this brings me back to my original argument.

I'm saying that in the urban consumer economy, particularly Ado-Ekiti, illicit money appears to have an influence that is much larger than the official economic statistics reveal and this is a ticking time-bomb.

Look at the things that are visible on the ground like property, rents, cars, lounges, hotels, restaurants, short-lets, nightlife and transportation. Who is paying the premium prices in these markets? Who is driving the demand for expensive cars and high-end accommodation? Who can afford to pay significantly above the normal price for ordinary services?

I'm a property owner in Ekiti, and I'm telling you what I have personally observed in the property market around Embassy Island there are landlords who specifically prefer tenants they believe can pay significantly higher rents, talk of yahoo boys. And the fact is out of every 10 youths in Ekiti, 8 is into Yahoo. Out of the other 2, one is an elite child and the last is right thinking.
That is not a GDP statistic it is a lived reality.

And even independent property-market data shows that rental prices in Ado-Ekiti have changed substantially.

Then look at the cybercrime evidence itself.

I'm not inventing the Yahoo-boy issue. In June 2023, EFCC arrested 47 suspected internet fraudsters around Ikere Road and Iworoko in Ado-Ekiti in a single operation. The operation reportedly recovered 15 exotic cars, 16 laptops and 77 phones.

And this wasn't an isolated historical incident. In June 2025, EFCC again arrested 34 suspected internet fraudsters in Iworoko and Ijado areas of Ado-Ekiti. This were the ones that were caught and broadcasted. If In doubt, drive from ado to iworoko and see the number of police checkpoints out for one major thing........ Yahoo boys.

So if you're asking me to prove that cybercrime is a real and significant issue among young people in Ekiti, there is documented evidence for that.

My "9 out of 10" statement is better understood as an expression of the scale of what people living there observe, not a scientific population statistic. If you want to challenge the observation, then bring independent survey data showing otherwise.

Now let's talk about the average Ekiti resident.

You mentioned IGR. Fine. But IGR is government revenue, it doesn't automatically tell us that the average citizen is prosperous. If the government is aggressively taxing small businesses, shops, transport operators and other informal businesses, that can increase IGR while simultaneously making life harder for ordinary people.

That is why transportation prices matter. If an Okada rider has to meet multiple daily levies and operating costs, he has to recover those costs from passengers. And if another class of consumers (yahoo boys) is willing to pay considerably more than the normal price, that can further distort the local market.

And that's where my "time bomb" argument comes in.

If a significant amount of discretionary spending in an economy is coming from an illegal and unsustainable source, then the economy is vulnerable when that source is disrupted.

If tomorrow EFCC, international law enforcement, tighter banking controls, improved cybercrime detection and technological changes make internet fraud substantially more difficult, what happens to the young people whose spending currently supports certain landlords, car dealers, lounges, hotels, restaurants and other businesses which offcourse I will say again is the bedrock of Ekiti economy.

That's the question I'm asking.

I'm not saying agriculture doesn't exist. I'm not saying ABUAD doesn't contribute to Ekiti. I'm not saying government statistics are automatically false.

I'm saying none of those things answers the question I'm raising about the structure of Ekiti's consumer economy and the influence of illicit money within it.

So let's debate with evidence.

Show me the independent data on Ekiti's major industries.

Show me the number and scale of major private-sector employers outside government, education and a few institutions.

Show me independent household income and expenditure data.

Show me the documented value of agricultural exports and where they go.

Show me the documented cargo volumes through the airport.

Show me the independent evidence of the source of the money driving property, luxury-car, hotel and nightlife demand.

And most importantly, show me independent evidence that disproves the very visible concentration of internet-fraud activity among young people in parts of Ado-Ekiti.

Because saying "Ekiti has agriculture and ABUAD" doesn't answer that argument.

I'm asking you to distinguish between what Ekiti produces, what the government reports, and what ordinary people actually experience in the economy.

You seem to have something against Ekiti despite living there. Which data did I make up? VAT isn't state IGR. Ekiti paid more than Osun. The FG saw more to collect in Ekiti than in Osun of double the population

With what metric do you want to measure industrialization than VAT? If Osun or Ekiti is paying more VAT than your state then there is no reason to say your state is more industrialized

If a for profit like ABUAD is employing 1500 workers gainfully, it is safe to say as a going concern it is worth around 2 billion dollars in Nigeria

lawani:
You seem to have something against Ekiti despite living there. Which data did I make up? VAT isn't state IGR. Ekiti paid more than Osun. The FG saw more to collect in Ekiti than in Osun of double the population

With what metric do you want to measure industrialization than VAT? If Osun or Ekiti is paying more VAT than your state then there is no reason to say your state is more industrialized

If a for profit like ABUAD is employing 1500 workers gainfully, it is safe to say as a going concern it is worth around 2 billion dollars in Nigeria

First and foremost, I don't live in permanently in Ekiti. I'm from Ekiti. And the reason I'm actually very particular about this issue is because Ekiti is a state that, in my opinion, has almost everything it takes to become much bigger economically than it currently is. That is precisely why the situation bothers me.

I'm saying that the influence of internet fraud and the lifestyle surrounding it has become too visible and too significant, particularly among young people, and I worry about what that means for the state's future.

Let me give you a personal example.

There was a boy I used to know. Let's call him Yomi. I went to see my grandmother one time and met this boy. He was extremely intelligent. I genuinely enjoyed having conversations with him. He was about 15 years old and wanted to become an aeronautical engineer.

I was so impressed by him that I was even telling my grandmother that perhaps this boy could eventually come and stay with me. I was thinking of speaking to his parents so he could come and study around where I was and potentially pursue something like aeronautical engineering in airforce institute of technology.

The next time I came back home, guess what?

This boy was already into internet fraud.

By the time he was about 16, he had already bought a lady's bike like it's called and iPhone. Clubbing drinking and wearing oversize trousers in the name of fashion.

I remember being genuinely disgusted not simply because of the crime itself, but because I saw what had been lost.

This was a child who had the intelligence and ambition to become something significant. He could have become an engineer, a pilot, a scientist, an entrepreneur, or eventually someone contributing meaningfully to the development of Ekiti.

And that is the part that worries me.

There are 1000s of yomis in Ekiti and These are the people who should be building the state in the next 20 or 30 years. They should be the engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, academics, civil servants, industrialists and political leaders of the future.

But if some of the brightest young people are being attracted away from legitimate careers into internet fraud because the immediate financial rewards are much higher, then the state is finished.

We're talking about human-capital loss.

And I have another personal observation.

Whenever I drive from Ado-Ekiti towards places like Ifaki, Ido or Oye to see old friends, I notice how frequently young people driving certain types of cars are stopped at police checkpoints. Fact is 7 out of 10 cars flagged down by the police guys is into the fraud.

I'm also saying that the prevalence of the problem has become sufficiently visible that it affects how young people are perceived by law enforcement.

And that itself tells you something about the scale of the problem in the state.

EFCC's own operations also shows my points are real and not fictions. I even watch the EFCC boss speaking about Ekiti and cybercrime and raising how a state of emergency should be placed on cybercrime in Ekiti State.

Now, about your economic argument.

You keep mentioning VAT, ABUAD and agriculture. Fine. I'm not dismissing those things.

But I think you're conflating several different economic concepts.

VAT is not the same thing as industrialisation.

VAT tells us about taxable consumption and transactions. It does not, by itself, tell us what percentage of an economy comes from manufacturing, agriculture, processing, government services, education, trading, informal businesses or other sectors.

If you want to use VAT as evidence that Ekiti is more industrialised than another state, then let's see the breakdown of what is producing that VAT.

How much is manufacturing?

How much is agricultural processing?

How much is wholesale and retail?

How much is services?

How much is education?

How much is government-related consumption?


And ABUAD doesn't settle the argument either. I'm not saying ABUAD isn't a major institution. It clearly is.

But saying that because a university employs around 1,500 people, it is therefore worth about $2 billion is not a valuation methodology.

ABUAD itself describes itself as a non-profit private university, with profits ploughed back into the institution. So if you're putting a $2 billion valuation on it, show me the valuation methodology, audited financials, asset valuation or comparable transaction that produces that figure.

The number of employees alone cannot establish a $2 billion valuation.

And even if ABUAD were worth $2 billion, it is still one institution.

So I'm asking a different question:

Outside government, education, agriculture and small-scale trading, what are Ekiti's major private industries?

Where are the large-scale manufacturing companies?

Where are the major processing industries?

Where are the companies employing tens of thousands of people?

Where are the large export-oriented businesses?

If you're telling me Ekiti has a highly diversified industrial economy, let's identify the industries and quantify them.

The same thing applies to agriculture.

Agricultural production is not the same thing as industrialisation or large-scale export activity.

If the argument is that these agricultural products are driving a huge part of Ekiti's economy, then let's see the value chain.

How much cocoa is produced annually?

How much is processed within Ekiti?

Which companies process it?

How much is actually exported?

Who are the exporters?

Where does it go?

What is the annual export value?

Do the same for rice, cassava and the other products you're mentioning.

Look at property.

Look at rent.

Look at cars.

Look at lounges.

Look at hotels.

Look at restaurants.

Look at short-lets.

Look at transportation.

Look at the kind of lifestyle some young people are suddenly able to afford despite having no corresponding legitimate income source.

I hope you get how this affects the future of Ekiti

Oracleee:
First and foremost, I don't live in permanently in Ekiti. I'm from Ekiti. And the reason I'm actually very particular about this issue is because Ekiti is a state that, in my opinion, has almost everything it takes to become much bigger economically than it currently is. That is precisely why the situation bothers me.

I'm saying that the influence of internet fraud and the lifestyle surrounding it has become too visible and too significant, particularly among young people, and I worry about what that means for the state's future.

Let me give you a personal example.

There was a boy I used to know. Let's call him Yomi. I went to see my grandmother one time and met this boy. He was extremely intelligent. I genuinely enjoyed having conversations with him. He was about 15 years old and wanted to become an aeronautical engineer.

I was so impressed by him that I was even telling my grandmother that perhaps this boy could eventually come and stay with me. I was thinking of speaking to his parents so he could come and study around where I was and potentially pursue something like aeronautical engineering in airforce institute of technology.

The next time I came back home, guess what?

This boy was already into internet fraud.

By the time he was about 16, he had already bought a lady's bike like it's called and iPhone. Clubbing drinking and wearing oversize trousers in the name of fashion.

I remember being genuinely disgusted not simply because of the crime itself, but because I saw what had been lost.

This was a child who had the intelligence and ambition to become something significant. He could have become an engineer, a pilot, a scientist, an entrepreneur, or eventually someone contributing meaningfully to the development of Ekiti.

And that is the part that worries me.

There are 1000s of yomis in Ekiti and These are the people who should be building the state in the next 20 or 30 years. They should be the engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, academics, civil servants, industrialists and political leaders of the future.

But if some of the brightest young people are being attracted away from legitimate careers into internet fraud because the immediate financial rewards are much higher, then the state is finished.

We're talking about human-capital loss.

And I have another personal observation.

Whenever I drive from Ado-Ekiti towards places like Ifaki, Ido or Oye to see old friends, I notice how frequently young people driving certain types of cars are stopped at police checkpoints. Fact is 7 out of 10 cars flagged down by the police guys is into the fraud.

I'm also saying that the prevalence of the problem has become sufficiently visible that it affects how young people are perceived by law enforcement.

And that itself tells you something about the scale of the problem in the state.

EFCC's own operations also shows my points are real and not fictions. I even watch the EFCC boss speaking about Ekiti and cybercrime and raising how a state of emergency should be placed on cybercrime in Ekiti State.

Now, about your economic argument.

You keep mentioning VAT, ABUAD and agriculture. Fine. I'm not dismissing those things.

But I think you're conflating several different economic concepts.

VAT is not the same thing as industrialisation.

VAT tells us about taxable consumption and transactions. It does not, by itself, tell us what percentage of an economy comes from manufacturing, agriculture, processing, government services, education, trading, informal businesses or other sectors.

If you want to use VAT as evidence that Ekiti is more industrialised than another state, then let's see the breakdown of what is producing that VAT.

How much is manufacturing?

How much is agricultural processing?

How much is wholesale and retail?

How much is services?

How much is education?

How much is government-related consumption?


And ABUAD doesn't settle the argument either. I'm not saying ABUAD isn't a major institution. It clearly is.

But saying that because a university employs around 1,500 people, it is therefore worth about $2 billion is not a valuation methodology.

ABUAD itself describes itself as a non-profit private university, with profits ploughed back into the institution. So if you're putting a $2 billion valuation on it, show me the valuation methodology, audited financials, asset valuation or comparable transaction that produces that figure.

The number of employees alone cannot establish a $2 billion valuation.

And even if ABUAD were worth $2 billion, it is still one institution.

So I'm asking a different question:

Outside government, education, agriculture and small-scale trading, what are Ekiti's major private industries?

Where are the large-scale manufacturing companies?

Where are the major processing industries?

Where are the companies employing tens of thousands of people?

Where are the large export-oriented businesses?

If you're telling me Ekiti has a highly diversified industrial economy, let's identify the industries and quantify them.

The same thing applies to agriculture.

Agricultural production is not the same thing as industrialisation or large-scale export activity.

If the argument is that these agricultural products are driving a huge part of Ekiti's economy, then let's see the value chain.

How much cocoa is produced annually?

How much is processed within Ekiti?

Which companies process it?

How much is actually exported?

Who are the exporters?

Where does it go?

What is the annual export value?

Do the same for rice, cassava and the other products you're mentioning.

Look at property.

Look at rent.

Look at cars.

Look at lounges.

Look at hotels.

Look at restaurants.

Look at short-lets.

Look at transportation.

Look at the kind of lifestyle some young people are suddenly able to afford despite having no corresponding legitimate income source.

I hope you get how this affects the future of Ekiti

I don't stay in Ekiti and other than pass through the place over twenty years ago, I have never been there. However published data can not be wished away especially if it involves money shared to everybody. Published data about money shared to everybody isn't doctored statistics.

Then there are metrics by which the level of industrialization of a place can be measured and one of such metrics is VAT paid because it measures the volume of value added production going on in the place.

ABUAD is not a charity organization nor is it a NGO so it is a for profit and even a not for profit paying 1500 people for ten years without hitches can be declared to be worth 2 billion dollars. It can be valued on that basis alone

Ah so this is what they call themselves...

lawani:
Omo ale means bastard. That is the raw meaning but anyone working against the interests of their family is designated as an omo ale. The opposite is Omo oko meaning child of the husband from the ancestors of the husband and in tune with the family's progress. Omo is child, Ale is somebody you are having sex with outside marriage and oko is husband.

Olosho is a new word. It did not exist in the past to the best of my knowledge. It means ladies who are involved in prostitution in a coded manner.

They are ....they are poles apart in difference in culture the Igbo culture is totally difference from Yoruba language

Gerrard59:
Thanks a lot for the breakdown. Nigerians, at least southern Nigerians, aren't really that different in their cultural behaviours.

Dreal1247:
In the South East, it is seen as a proof of irresponsibility to have a child outside wedlock or without proper marriage. In most cases it's a shame for a lady to get pregnant with the dowry not yet paid. That's one of the major reasons why the cases of abandoned babies are very much rampant in the eastern part of Nigeria.

talking rubbish! Where is your source for this fallacy you spewed here?

Oracleee:
My reply would be long and I won't give another unless you counter with facts and evidenced not just hearsay.

You're giving me figures and projections on paper, I'm talking about the economy as it is actually experienced by people living in Ekiti.

I'm not saying Ekiti has no legitimate economic activity. Of course it does. There is agriculture, education, government employment, healthcare and other businesses. I'm also not saying I dismiss every figure published by the state government. I'm saying government figures should be independently verified before we use them as the final word on the economic reality of the state.

Take ABUAD, for example. You said it has about 1,500 staff and then moved from that to a supposed valuation of over ₦3 trillion. How exactly was that valuation calculated? And more importantly, how does the existence of one private university and its hospital demonstrate that the average Ekiti resident has substantial purchasing power? How many average Ekiti households can actually afford ABUAD's tuition or private healthcare services?

That's the distinction I'm making, economic activity on paper is not the same thing as broad-based household prosperity or consumer purchasing power.

You also mentioned cocoa, rice, yam, maize, okro, cassava, palm oil and other agricultural products. Fine. I'm not disputing that Ekiti farms these products. But producing an agricultural commodity is not the same thing as having a large industrial/export economy built around that commodity.

So show me the actual value chain.

How much of this produce is processed inside Ekiti? Which companies are buying it? How much is exported annually? To which countries? Through which ports or airports? What are the customs/export records?

Take the airport itself. It was inaugurated in 2022 as an agro-allied cargo airport with the stated objective of facilitating the movement and export of agricultural commodities. But as recently as 2025, the state government was still talking about making it a 24-hour operation and developing it into a hub for transporting farm produce to local and international destinations.

So I'm asking a very simple question, show me documented evidence of significant agricultural cargo actually moving through that airport. Not the projected capacity or what the airport was built to do. Show me the cargo manifests, export volumes, companies, destinations and frequency.

And this brings me back to my original argument.

I'm saying that in the urban consumer economy, particularly Ado-Ekiti, illicit money appears to have an influence that is much larger than the official economic statistics reveal and this is a ticking time-bomb.

Look at the things that are visible on the ground like property, rents, cars, lounges, hotels, restaurants, short-lets, nightlife and transportation. Who is paying the premium prices in these markets? Who is driving the demand for expensive cars and high-end accommodation? Who can afford to pay significantly above the normal price for ordinary services?

I'm a property owner in Ekiti, and I'm telling you what I have personally observed in the property market around Embassy Island there are landlords who specifically prefer tenants they believe can pay significantly higher rents, talk of yahoo boys. And the fact is out of every 10 youths in Ekiti, 8 is into Yahoo. Out of the other 2, one is an elite child and the last is right thinking.
That is not a GDP statistic it is a lived reality.

And even independent property-market data shows that rental prices in Ado-Ekiti have changed substantially.

Then look at the cybercrime evidence itself.

I'm not inventing the Yahoo-boy issue. In June 2023, EFCC arrested 47 suspected internet fraudsters around Ikere Road and Iworoko in Ado-Ekiti in a single operation. The operation reportedly recovered 15 exotic cars, 16 laptops and 77 phones.

And this wasn't an isolated historical incident. In June 2025, EFCC again arrested 34 suspected internet fraudsters in Iworoko and Ijado areas of Ado-Ekiti. This were the ones that were caught and broadcasted. If In doubt, drive from ado to iworoko and see the number of police checkpoints out for one major thing........ Yahoo boys.

So if you're asking me to prove that cybercrime is a real and significant issue among young people in Ekiti, there is documented evidence for that.

My "9 out of 10" statement is better understood as an expression of the scale of what people living there observe, not a scientific population statistic. If you want to challenge the observation, then bring independent survey data showing otherwise.

Now let's talk about the average Ekiti resident.

You mentioned IGR. Fine. But IGR is government revenue, it doesn't automatically tell us that the average citizen is prosperous. If the government is aggressively taxing small businesses, shops, transport operators and other informal businesses, that can increase IGR while simultaneously making life harder for ordinary people.

That is why transportation prices matter. If an Okada rider has to meet multiple daily levies and operating costs, he has to recover those costs from passengers. And if another class of consumers (yahoo boys) is willing to pay considerably more than the normal price, that can further distort the local market.

And that's where my "time bomb" argument comes in.

If a significant amount of discretionary spending in an economy is coming from an illegal and unsustainable source, then the economy is vulnerable when that source is disrupted.

If tomorrow EFCC, international law enforcement, tighter banking controls, improved cybercrime detection and technological changes make internet fraud substantially more difficult, what happens to the young people whose spending currently supports certain landlords, car dealers, lounges, hotels, restaurants and other businesses which offcourse I will say again is the bedrock of Ekiti economy.

That's the question I'm asking.

I'm not saying agriculture doesn't exist. I'm not saying ABUAD doesn't contribute to Ekiti. I'm not saying government statistics are automatically false.

I'm saying none of those things answers the question I'm raising about the structure of Ekiti's consumer economy and the influence of illicit money within it.

So let's debate with evidence.

Show me the independent data on Ekiti's major industries.

Show me the number and scale of major private-sector employers outside government, education and a few institutions.

Show me independent household income and expenditure data.

Show me the documented value of agricultural exports and where they go.

Show me the documented cargo volumes through the airport.

Show me the independent evidence of the source of the money driving property, luxury-car, hotel and nightlife demand.

And most importantly, show me independent evidence that disproves the very visible concentration of internet-fraud activity among young people in parts of Ado-Ekiti.

Because saying "Ekiti has agriculture and ABUAD" doesn't answer that argument.

I'm asking you to distinguish between what Ekiti produces, what the government reports, and what ordinary people actually experience in the economy.

Thoroughly detailed!

Oracleee:
First and foremost, I don't live in permanently in Ekiti. I'm from Ekiti. And the reason I'm actually very particular about this issue is because Ekiti is a state that, in my opinion, has almost everything it takes to become much bigger economically than it currently is. That is precisely why the situation bothers me.

I'm saying that the influence of internet fraud and the lifestyle surrounding it has become too visible and too significant, particularly among young people, and I worry about what that means for the state's future.

Let me give you a personal example.

There was a boy I used to know. Let's call him Yomi. I went to see my grandmother one time and met this boy. He was extremely intelligent. I genuinely enjoyed having conversations with him. He was about 15 years old and wanted to become an aeronautical engineer.

I was so impressed by him that I was even telling my grandmother that perhaps this boy could eventually come and stay with me. I was thinking of speaking to his parents so he could come and study around where I was and potentially pursue something like aeronautical engineering in airforce institute of technology.

The next time I came back home, guess what?

This boy was already into internet fraud.

By the time he was about 16, he had already bought a lady's bike like it's called and iPhone. Clubbing drinking and wearing oversize trousers in the name of fashion.

I remember being genuinely disgusted not simply because of the crime itself, but because I saw what had been lost.

This was a child who had the intelligence and ambition to become something significant. He could have become an engineer, a pilot, a scientist, an entrepreneur, or eventually someone contributing meaningfully to the development of Ekiti.

And that is the part that worries me.

There are 1000s of yomis in Ekiti and These are the people who should be building the state in the next 20 or 30 years. They should be the engineers, doctors, entrepreneurs, academics, civil servants, industrialists and political leaders of the future.

But if some of the brightest young people are being attracted away from legitimate careers into internet fraud because the immediate financial rewards are much higher, then the state is finished.

We're talking about human-capital loss.

And I have another personal observation.

Whenever I drive from Ado-Ekiti towards places like Ifaki, Ido or Oye to see old friends, I notice how frequently young people driving certain types of cars are stopped at police checkpoints. Fact is 7 out of 10 cars flagged down by the police guys is into the fraud.

I'm also saying that the prevalence of the problem has become sufficiently visible that it affects how young people are perceived by law enforcement.

And that itself tells you something about the scale of the problem in the state.

EFCC's own operations also shows my points are real and not fictions. I even watch the EFCC boss speaking about Ekiti and cybercrime and raising how a state of emergency should be placed on cybercrime in Ekiti State.

Now, about your economic argument.

You keep mentioning VAT, ABUAD and agriculture. Fine. I'm not dismissing those things.

But I think you're conflating several different economic concepts.

VAT is not the same thing as industrialisation.

VAT tells us about taxable consumption and transactions. It does not, by itself, tell us what percentage of an economy comes from manufacturing, agriculture, processing, government services, education, trading, informal businesses or other sectors.

If you want to use VAT as evidence that Ekiti is more industrialised than another state, then let's see the breakdown of what is producing that VAT.

How much is manufacturing?

How much is agricultural processing?

How much is wholesale and retail?

How much is services?

How much is education?

How much is government-related consumption?


And ABUAD doesn't settle the argument either. I'm not saying ABUAD isn't a major institution. It clearly is.

But saying that because a university employs around 1,500 people, it is therefore worth about $2 billion is not a valuation methodology.

ABUAD itself describes itself as a non-profit private university, with profits ploughed back into the institution. So if you're putting a $2 billion valuation on it, show me the valuation methodology, audited financials, asset valuation or comparable transaction that produces that figure.

The number of employees alone cannot establish a $2 billion valuation.

And even if ABUAD were worth $2 billion, it is still one institution.

So I'm asking a different question:

Outside government, education, agriculture and small-scale trading, what are Ekiti's major private industries?

Where are the large-scale manufacturing companies?

Where are the major processing industries?

Where are the companies employing tens of thousands of people?

Where are the large export-oriented businesses?

If you're telling me Ekiti has a highly diversified industrial economy, let's identify the industries and quantify them.

The same thing applies to agriculture.

Agricultural production is not the same thing as industrialisation or large-scale export activity.

If the argument is that these agricultural products are driving a huge part of Ekiti's economy, then let's see the value chain.

How much cocoa is produced annually?

How much is processed within Ekiti?

Which companies process it?

How much is actually exported?

Who are the exporters?

Where does it go?

What is the annual export value?

Do the same for rice, cassava and the other products you're mentioning.

Look at property.

Look at rent.

Look at cars.

Look at lounges.

Look at hotels.

Look at restaurants.

Look at short-lets.

Look at transportation.

Look at the kind of lifestyle some young people are suddenly able to afford despite having no corresponding legitimate income source.

I hope you get how this affects the future of Ekiti

Wahala dey o! If so, then hordes of youths' lives in Benin-Asaba-Warri axis have been wasted. Add Owerri to the mix.

Chai!