The EFCC has extradited two Nigerians to the US to face charges over separate sextortion schemes linked to the suicides of two teenage boys, as part of continuing FBI-EFCC cooperation on such cases.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says it has extradited two Nigerians to the United States over alleged online sexual exploitation and sextortion of two teenage boys who later died by suicide.
In a statement on Friday, EFCC spokesperson Dele Oyewale said Mudashiru Afeez Olawale and Adebola Festus Adekunle were extradited on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, by the commission’s Lagos Zonal Directorate 2, after separate investigations by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) linked them to sextortion schemes targeting male minors, particularly those between the ages of 13 and 17.
The Cases
Oyewale said the schemes involved victims being threatened with the distribution of explicit images and extorted for money through channels including money remitters, gift cards and cryptocurrency. In one case, a 13-year-old boy was contacted on Instagram and persuaded to exchange explicit photographs; the suspect subsequently threatened to distribute the images to the boy’s Instagram contacts unless he paid money. Oyewale said the communication reportedly continued even after the boy indicated he intended to take his own life. The FBI later developed intelligence identifying individuals allegedly involved in the scheme and sought the EFCC’s assistance in investigating the suspects under Nigerian law; Adekunle was subsequently identified, investigated and arrested by the commission.
Olawale’s case followed a separate FBI investigation. US authorities sought his extradition over a seven-count charge, including alleged sexual exploitation of a minor resulting in death, enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity, interstate threatening communications, and distribution of child pornography. The EFCC commenced extradition proceedings against him at the Federal High Court in Lagos, in a case marked FHC/L/CS/353/2024.
The presiding judge, Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, refused the extradition application on June 10, 2024, but the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation appealed the decision.
On July 7, 2026, the Court of Appeal in Lagos, in appeal number CA/LAG/CV/721/2024, set aside the Federal High Court judgment, clearing the way for Olawale’s extradition.
Similar Cases Before This One
The case is not the first of its kind. In February 2026, a Nigerian national, Afeez Olatunji Adewale, was sentenced to 60 months in prison in the US after being extradited over a sextortion case linked to the death of a young man in Pennsylvania, the third Nigerian extradited in that particular case, following two co-defendants extradited in August 2024, one of whom was separately sentenced to five years in prison. US federal prosecutors have said such sextortion schemes, in which victims, often teenagers, are coerced into sending explicit images and then threatened with public exposure unless they pay money, have been linked to a rise in suicides among young victims in the US in recent years, prompting intensified cross-border investigations between US and Nigerian law enforcement.
Oyewale said the extraditions of Olawale and Adekunle were carried out as part of the EFCC‘s ongoing collaboration with the FBI on transnational crimes, and that the cases underscore the commission’s cooperation with US authorities in tackling internet-enabled crimes involving the sexual exploitation and sextortion of minors.
