The Economic Financial Crime Commission, EFCC, has rated Edo State as the second highest in financial-related crime convictions in the country.

Waploaded reports that the Zonal Director of the agency in charge of Edo, Delta and Ondo states, Effa Okim, disclosed this in Benin City while on a courtesy visit to the Edo State Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ.

Okim, who expressed worry over the statistics, noted that it was not a good reputation for the citizens and residents of the state.

According to him, “the statistics that we have is that Edo is after Lagos State in terms of conviction. It calls for concern.

“It is not a good reputation and for me, Edo is too great in the Nigerian history to be reduced to that level in terms of criminality,” he said.

The Benin Zonal Director stated that cybercrime, popularly known as ‘yahoo yahoo’ had led some children to go into ritual, adding that they had even resorted to using their parents for money rituals.

While noting that such crime undermined the culture, tradition and sanctity of the Nigerian state, he, however, blamed parents for not checkmating their children.

He said the commission was ready to partner with the media “to reduce the visibility of crime on our streets, especially the cybercrime being perpetuated by children, mostly underaged”.

Okim, who warned that the commission would not tolerate the act of spraying money in public, opined that the offence was even worse than cybercrime.

He averred that spraying money in public gives teenagers the mentality of getting wealth by any means.

He disclosed that some laws that frowned against accessory to crime would be activated by the anti-graft agency to curb the close affinity that some individuals share with the criminal elements.

He assured that when such laws were activated, landlords leasing their properties to such youngsters would become a thing of the past.