Hackers who stole N1.9bn from MTN get N50m bail
By Jude-Ken Ojinnaka
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Monday granted sum of N50 million bail to each of the two tertiary school students who were alleged to have fraudulently hacked into MTN Nigeria Communication website and defrauded it the sum of N1.9 billion.
The trial judge Justice Akintayo Aluko admitted the two defendants to bail after hearing two separate bail applications filed by the them.
In addition to the bail sum, Justice Aluko ordered the defendants to provide two sureties each, adding that one of the sureties must be a civil servant either in the Federal or Lagos State employment, who must be on grade level 14 and above, while the second surety must be a landed property owner within the jurisdiction of the court, must provide evidence of ownership, and must swear to an affidavit of means.
In the case of the civil servant as surety , the person must produce reference letter of his place of work, and letter of last promotion, while the defendants must submit two recent passport photographs to the registrar of the court.
Justice Aluko ordered that the prosecution should verify all documents submitted by the sureties including their residential addresses.
The court further ordered that the defendants be remanded in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) pending the fulfilment of their bail conditions .
Recall that two tertiary institution students Timothy Fashina Oluwabukola from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Abeokuta, Ogun State and Anthony Imonina Odemerho from Resign Regal Academy in Benin city, Edo State were last week docked before Justice Aluko of a Federal High Court Lagos for allegedly defrauding MTN Nigeria Communications Plc sum of N1.9 billion by hacking into the company’s website.
Oluwabukola and Odemerho were arraigned before the court by the Police Special Fraud Unit Ikoyi, Lagos on a four-count charge of conspiracy, unauthorized access into the company’s web-based platform known as Application Programming Interface (API) and unlawful conversion.
The duo were alleged to have hacked into MTN Nigeria Communication Plc’s computers and stole airtime and data valued at N1.9 billion.
The defendants and others said to be at large allegedly committed the offences between January and April 2024, in Lagos and Edo States respectively.
In the charge filed by the prosecution counsel Justine Enang, it was alleged that the defendants conspired and accessed the telecommunication’s Application Programming Interface (API) and obtained data from the said application, which they used to defraud MTN to the tune of N1.9 billion.
According to the charge before the court, the alleged illegal acts of the defendants, contravened Sections 27(1)(b); 6(2) and 28(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 as amended in 2024, but punishable under Section 8(2) of the same Act.
Furthermore, the illegal act of the defendants contravened Section 18(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prevention And Prohibition) Act, 2022, punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.
The two defendants pleaded not guilty to the four counts charge preferred against them.
Upon their plea of not guilty, the prosecutor asked the court for a trial date, and urged the court to remand them in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCoS) till the determination of the charge.
But the defence counsel informed the court that they had filed their bail applications for the defendants, adding that same had been served on the prosecutor.
The prosecutor confirmed being served with the applications, but told the court that he was served while the proceedings were on.
He asked the court for a short date to enable him study the applications and respond to same accordingly.
Consequently, Justice Aluko adjourned the matter till August 5, (today) for hearing of bail applications and ruling.
The charge against the defendants reads; “That you, Timothy Fashina Oluwabukola, Anthony Imonina Odemerho and others at large, between January and April, 2024, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired amongst yourselves to intentionally and without authorization, gained access into MTN Nigeria Communications Plc computer system/network, with intent to obtain data from the said computer system/network, which you subsequently used to defraud the company (MTN) to the tune of One Billion, Nine Hundred Million Naira (N1,900,000,000), and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 27(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 as amended in 2024, but punishable under Section 8(2) of the same Act.
“That you, Timothy Fashina Oluwabukola, Anthony Imonina Odemerho and others at large, between January and April, 2024, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, intentionally and without authorization, accessed the computer system or network of MTN Nigeria Communication Plc through the unlawful use of authorization keys and passwords to gain access to MTN web-based platform known as Application Programming Interface (API), with intent of obtaining airtime data from the said computer system or network, valued at One Billion, Nine Hundred Million Naira (N1,900, 000, 000), which you sold to the public and converted the proceeds of same to your own use and benefit, and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 6(2) of the Cybercrime (Prevention, Prohibition, etc) Act, 2015 is amended in 2024,
“That you, Timothy Fashina Oluwabukola, Anthony Imonina Odemerho and others at large, between January and April, 2024, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, unlawfully manipulated MTN Nigeria Communications Plc (MTN) computer system authorization keys or passwords which you used to access MTN. web-based platform also known as Application Programme Interface (API) and fraudulently obtained airtime from the said computer system, valued at N1, 900, 000, 000 (One billion, Nine hundred Million Naira) which you later converted to data and sold to the public and thereby caused financial loss to MTN Nigeria Communications Plc and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 28(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 as amended in 2024, but punishable under Section 28(4) of the same Act.
“That you, Timothy Fashina Oluwabukola, Anthony Imonina Odemerho and others at large, between January and April, 2024, in Lagos and Edo States, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, directly and intentionally converted MTN Nigeria Communications Plc property to wit: airtime valued One Billion, Nine Hundred Million Naira (N1, 900, 000, 000) to data which you sold to members of the public and later used the proceeds for your own benefits, which property/airtime, you knew or reasonably ought to have known formed part of the proceeds of unlawful act, namely unauthorized access into MTN computer system/network where the property/airtime was stored, and thereby committed an offence, contrary to Section 18(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 but punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.”
