TheCable

Ola Olukoyede, executive chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), says the agency has plans to rehabilitate convicted internet fraudsters with lesser sentences.

Speaking on Thursday when a delegation of the National Association of University Students (NAUS) led by Obadi Marshal, its president, paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja, Olukoyede said the rehabilitation would be a potent way of reorienting the minds of the convicts and redirecting their productive energies to positive endeavours.

“We have a plan to rehabilitate convicted internet fraudsters with lesser sentences. The plan is to work with the correctional centre to make them useful and more productive in society,” the EFCC boss said.

He cautioned youths against indulging in internet crimes, stressing that the implication of such an act is grave.

Olukoyede also cautioned students against forming parallel organisations to pursue similar interests.

“When you think deeply, that tag ‘ex-convict’ is not a good thing. You can never tell where you would find yourself tomorrow and they would want to profile you and discover that you are an ex-convict,” Olukoyede said.

“So, it is even in the interest of the youth that the EFCC is doing what it is doing to prevent them from indulging in the heinous act of cybercrime.

“The issue of dichotomies of associations is disturbing. Regulate yourselves and the society will take you more seriously.”

Speaking earlier, Marshal said the visit was to build synergy with the EFCC in its fight against cybercrimes across Nigerian university campuses.

“The aim of our visit today is to see how we can synergize and partner with the EFCC in eradicating cybercrime in all the higher institutions of learning in the country,” he said.

“NAUS has never been part of it and will never support it, that is why we are at the EFCC to see how we can collaborate to end it. The onus is on us all to save our youths from taking part in it and to save our country.”