On Tuesday, EFCC Chairman Olanipekun Olukoyede walked into a conference of university pro-chancellors in Kano and dropped a number that stopped the room.
“My research in the last one year has shown that about six out of 10 students in our universities are into cybercrime. It is a very disturbing situation,” he said.
By Wednesday morning, the statement was everywhere. Two conversations immediately started running at the same time. One focused on whether Nigerian students really are this deep into internet fraud. The other questioned whether the EFCC chairman actually has data strong enough to back up a claim this sweeping. 
What He Said and Where He Said It
Olukoyede made the disclosure at the 8th Biennial Conference of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria, themed “Unlocking the Potentials of Artificial Intelligence: University Governance, Internationalisation and Rankings.”
Rather than just throwing out the number and moving on, he backed it with operational evidence. Field investigations by the commission revealed widespread student involvement in internet fraud. Several suspects the EFCC arrested in recent cybercrime operations turned out to be undergraduates. Some had allegedly placed lecturers on their payroll, compromising academic integrity from the inside.
During a major Lagos operation in December 2024, authorities arrested 792 suspects linked to a transnational cybercrime syndicate. A significant number of those apprehended were students. Olukoyede also warned about the growing trend of “Yahoo Plus,” where suspects combine internet fraud with fetish practices, a dangerous evolution of an already serious problem.
The Students Are Not Having It
The pushback came fast. The National Association of Nigerian Students described the claim as misleading and damaging to the image of Nigerian students both within and outside the country. NANS Senate President Usman Adamu Nagwaza called the assertion unfounded and said it fails to reflect the reality of students across Nigerian universities.
NANS demanded that the EFCC chairman retract the statement. According to the student body, such generalisations risk painting all students negatively. They also warned that the claim could harm the reputation of Nigerian graduates in the eyes of international institutions and employers.
Their point carries weight. Nigeria currently has roughly 1.8 million undergraduate students enrolled across its universities. If six out of ten genuinely engage in cybercrime, that means approximately 1.08 million students are active internet fraudsters. Making that claim without a published, peer-reviewed methodology behind it is a significant leap.
What the Data Actually Shows
This is where the picture becomes more nuanced. The broader evidence on Nigerian cybercrime supports serious concern, even if the 60% figure itself invites scrutiny.
EFCC records show that over 2,800 young people, the majority of them students, faced conviction for cybercrime offences in 2022 alone. Beyond convictions, the commission arrested over 6,000 undergraduate students across different institutions in the past three years for internet fraud.
Research published in 2025 identified youth unemployment as a critical driver of cybercrime in Nigeria. Nigeria’s median age sits at 18.6 years. Its youth unemployment rate stood at 40.6% in 2023. For many young Nigerians, particularly educated undergraduates, economic desperation and the allure of quick wealth make cybercrime appear viable.
So who is actually doing the most ”Yahoo Yahoo”: students, the unemployed, or working professionals?
The data cuts across all three groups. However, students and unemployed youth dominate arrest statistics by a wide margin. Research consistently identifies young Nigerians aged 15 to 29 as the primary demographic. Urban university environments provide both the digital infrastructure and the social networks that make fraud easier to sustain.
Furthermore, Nigeria loses at least $500 million annually to cybercrime, according to reports from the Nigerian Senate and the Nigerian Communication Commission. That figure points to an operation far larger than any single demographic can sustain alone. Working professionals and organised networks clearly contribute, even if they appear less frequently in arrest records.
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So Is He Right?
Partially, but not quite in the way the headline suggests.
EFCC arrest data confirms that students represent a significant and growing portion of cybercrime suspects in Nigeria. Structural conditions fuel this directly. Youth unemployment above 40%, poor graduate employment outcomes, peer pressure, and a culture that has in some spaces normalised fraud as an enterprise — these factors create exactly the environment Olukoyede described.
However, the 60% figure does not come from a published study or independent verification. Instead, it draws from the EFCC’s own internal investigations and field operations. By definition, those records reflect who the EFCC arrests, not necessarily who commits cybercrime across the entire student population. An agency whose primary tools are raids and arrests will naturally encounter more students than office workers. Students are simply more visible and more accessible in their physical environments.
The real story is not whether the exact percentage is accurate. Rather, enough Nigerian students engage in cybercrime for it to be a documented, measurable, systemic problem. Moreover, the structural conditions driving it, unemployment, poverty, weak institutions, and a culture that has glamourised fraud, will not disappear through student arrests alone.
The NANS demand for a retraction is understandable. However, the underlying problem it is defending students against? That is real. The data says so clearly.
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