Operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has busted a Ponzi Scheme Academy and arrested 133 suspects in Abuja.

They were arrested at the Compensation Layout in Gwagwalada area of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, following actionable intelligence on the existence of the Academy.

The Academy, named Q University (a.k.a Q-Net) is in the business of recruiting gullible young Nigerians who are trained to recruit more gullible citizens into the scheme with the promise of getting unrealistic profit returns.

The suspects are enrolled into a training codenamed: “Special Training for New Generation Billionaire” and brainwashed to believe that they would graduate into the league of billionaires.

They got into the training by obtaining a form the promoters called “Independent Representative Application Form” with promotional slogans such as: “I’m a Champion” “I’m Unstoppable”, “I’m Infinity”, among others.

The EFCC carried out the operation in collaboration with officers and men of 176 Guards Battalion, Nigerian Army.

Items recovered from the suspects include phones, computers and other electronic gadgets.

They will be charged to court as soon as investigations are concluded.

Big companies are leaving Nigeria are leaving Nigeria because of what Heineken Lokpobiri, minister of state for petroleum resources described as “middlemanism”.

So called “middlemanism” is slack form of middleman, which is an intermediary who facilitates transactions between a buyer and a seller, often taking on roles like wholesaling, distribution, or brokering, and earning a commission or fee for their services.

The minister made this known during the opening of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria’s Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Conference.

Heineken Lokpobiri disclosed that a lot of intermediaries who entered the oil industry caused its damage.

According to the minister, due to middlemen and intermediaries, some big and multinational oil service giant such as Schlumberger, Halliburton, McDermott, and others left Nigeria.

“We have made mistakes. And I’m saying this specifically so that all African countries here today will not make the mistake that Nigeria made. When I became minister, one of the issues I was confronted with had to do with the multinational service companies all exiting Nigeria. They’ve all gone, except, maybe this Italian company, Saipem. That was the only one that was around. So we had a situation where there was a monopoly.

“The other big boys—the Schlumberger, Halliburton, the McDermotts—all of them have gone. All of you here in PETAN have your good days in these companies. That was where you started from. That was where you actually developed your capacity,” Lokpobiri said.

Authorities in seven African countries have arrested 306 suspects and seized 1842 devices in a sweeping international operation targeting cyber-enabled fraud and scams.

Dubbed Operation Red Card, the effort ran from November 2024 to February 2025, focusing on dismantling cybercrime networks that defrauded over 5000 victims through mobile banking fraud, investment scams and malicious messaging app schemes., according to infosecurity-magazine.com

In Nigeria, police arrested 130 suspects, including 113 foreign nationals, for running fraudulent investment schemes and online casinos.

Authorities found that criminals funneled illicit proceeds into digital assets to obscure their financial trails.

Investigations also uncovered signs of human trafficking, with some individuals coerced into participating in the scams.

Law enforcement seized: 26 vehicles; 16 houses; 39 plots of land; and 685 electronic devices

In Rwanda, 45 individuals were arrested for orchestrating a social engineering scam that defrauded victims of more than $305,000 in 2024.

Scammers posed as telecommunications employees and falsely claimed victims had won lotteries to extract sensitive information.

Others impersonated injured family members to request emergency financial assistance.

Authorities recovered $103,043 and seized 292 devices.

South African authorities arrested 40 individuals and confiscated over 1000 SIM cards, along with 53 desktop computers and towers linked to a sophisticated SIM box fraud scheme.

This setup allowed cybercriminals to disguise international calls as local ones, facilitating large-scale SMS phishing attacks.

In Zambia, law enforcement apprehended 14 members of a cyber syndicate specializing in malware attacks.

The criminals sent phishing messages containing malicious links, infecting victims’ devices and taking control of messaging and banking apps. This enabled them to access financial accounts and further spread fraudulent links.

The operation was carried out through INTERPOL’s African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AFJOC) initiative, which supports law enforcement efforts in combating cyber-threats.

The United Kingdom’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office funded Operation Red Card under the AFJOC initiative, allocating £2.6m to enhance Africa’s law enforcement capabilities in detecting and preventing cybercrime.

The seven participating countries – Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, To and Zambia – continue to collaborate on intelligence-led cybercrime investigations.

“The success of Operation Red Card demonstrates the power of international cooperation in combating cybercrime, which knows no borders and can have devastating effects on individuals and communities,” commented Neal Jetton, Interpol’s director of the cybercrime directorate.

“The recovery of significant assets and devices, as well as the arrest of key suspects, sends a strong message to cyber-criminals that their activities will not go unpunished.”