Over the years, it has been ascertained that those who live their best also get the best in any season of life. Living one’s life is as simple as one makes it look and feel. For the youths who are growing into adulthood, living one’s best is not rocket science because everyone knows what is right and wrong. Most of the things youths do in ignorance are the things they can look away from because obscenity has no definition, but when you sees it, you recognize it.
Going through my phone, recently, to check updates and entertain myself, I stumbled on the video of a 21-year-old lady named Princess who was paraded alongside her boyfriend, Prince, by the Delta State Police Command for faking her abduction in connivance with Prince. Princess had falsely told her parents she was going to make her hair in a nearby village. Instead, she went to her boyfriend’s home. While relaxing with her guy, her parents were looking for her at home. They even reported the situation to the police. As she was ready to get back home after frolicking with her guy for days, her boyfriend had no transport fare to take her home. Princess came up with the idea of duping her own parents. “I told my boyfriend to contact my parents and tell them that I have been kidnapped. Demand them to pay a ransom of N2m only before I would be released.”
Some youths can frustrate their parents to death. They simply refuse to live their best. You can easily imagine the level of anxiety expressed by the parents when the phone call about the fake kidnap situation came to them. The phone call from the pit of hell disorganized the family and the beautiful seasonal merriment. It was a call that shut the family member’s mouths from feeding and entertainment; then prompted a flood of tears. All the pains her parents went through within the period were unnecessary if Princess had lived her best.
The fake kidnapper demanded N2 million as ransom Princess’s father, a farmer offered him N40,000.00 and N100,000.00 subsequently, which he refused. At this point, the police mobilized and in the course of investigation tracked down and arrested Prince and Princess in their hideout. Today both are cooling their feet in the Police station. A daughter who dupes her own parents, is she living her best? What will become of her as a fresh undergraduate where freedom is the order of the day? Would she not become a cheap bowl for the village spit?
Again, and unfortunately, to think that most young boys and girls are heavily involved in what they describe as ‘Hustler’s Kingdom’ (HK) is fearful. Youths who should be focused and become great future leaders are derailing by the day. From the grapevine, ‘Hustler’s Kingdom’ is a situation where a leading yahoo boy rents an apartment to accommodate as many young boys and girls as he can. The leader who is the owner of the house distributes free laptops, free internet access and some Android phones to enable the yahoo yahoo apprentices chat up their victims. These boys have converted their days to night and vice versa. Sleeping is allowed only in the morning hours while they stay up in the night to work because most of their victims are foreigners. Any form of sleeping as nature demands can earn one a smashed head with a broken bottle.
When the ill-gotten proceeds come, both will share it. Then, the young boy continues his yahoo trade and keeps passing on the torch. For how long will such lifestyle of rascality continue? Youths of this country, please live your best as HK is not your best. Young men and women who should be in various responsible apprenticeships to make honest living are gradually drifting into serious cybercrimes.
To substantiate this claim, at Ikpan Police Station in Uwvie Local Government Area of Delta state, I23 suspected internet fraudsters were paraded because of alleged engagement in internet fraud.
Information got to the police when one of the victims reached out to his mother who has a military relative. The military moved in their numbers and raided the estate.
The police source said: “They were all placed in a particular estate in Effurun, Warri Road in Delta State doing what they call ‘Hustlers Kingdom’. There modus operandi is to engage their agents who go on social media to flaunt wealth that are not theirs and convince unsuspecting boys below the age of 20. They convince these boys that they want to teach them Forex and Crypto business. Now what do they do? They lure them from different parts of country including the far north to that estate and beat the hell out of them as their welcoming terms. They feed them when they want to feed them. In fact, one said when they want to bathe, their clothes could be seized and they will say to them, “You are here and there is no going back.”
One of the suspects from Ibadan in Oyo State, said: “I studied in Arabic school and wanted to go to Cairo in Egypt. I met one of my friends and asked him to support me with N150,000.00. My friend told me that boys younger than myself were living larger than me. He said I should come to Warri, and he will teach me how to make money. I got to Warri, and as they led me into the estate, they beefed up the security which made me apprehensive. On inquiry of what was going on, I told them that I am Alfa and cannot be part of what they were doing. They beat me until I defecated on my body.”
Unfortunately, Alfa was there for the past nine months and was denied access to members of his family. To think that the parents of over 123 boys did not know the whereabouts of their children is a story for another day.
Are these young men living their best? Is this the best they could do with all the knowledge, wisdom and strength that God gave them? While seeking for the wrong adventure, they fell into the hands of fraudsters who could use them for ritual purposes. The fact that they are alive to tell their story and experience will forever haunt them.
Shockingly, some families according to information have been destabilized due to irrelevant attitudes of their youthful children. When Saidat, not real names ran on the street because of mental disorder, it was her accomplices that knew the substance she took that sent her to the streets.
Far in Imo State, reports had it that no fewer than 18 people were attacked with cutlasses in several communities in Orsu Local Government Area of Imo state on Sunday, 5th January, 2025. The
incident left many of the victims dead. It was gathered that the tragedy followed the annual masquerade festival celebrated in the towns. Anonymous sources said the killing was between rival cults in the communities. There were also other reports in other communities where rival cult groups who disguised as masquerade entertainers disturbed their communities in various quarters.