A Federal High Court in Lagos on Monday granted N50m bail each to two students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and Resign Regal Academy, Timothy Oluwabukola and Anthony Odemerho, who allegedly hacked MTN Nigeria Communication computers and stole airtime and data valued at N1.9bn.
Justice Akintayo Aluko granted them bail after hearing two separate bail applications filed by the defendants.
In addition to the bail sum, Aluko ordered the defendants to provide two sureties each, one of whom must be a civil servant in the federal or Lagos State employment, who must be grade level 14 and above.
He said that the second surety must be a landed property owner within the jurisdiction of the court, provide evidence of ownership, and must swear to an affidavit of means.
In the case of the civil servant, they must produce a reference letter of their place of work, and a letter of last promotion, while the defendants must submit two recent passport photographs to the court registrar.
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 Correctional Centre pending the fulfilment of their bail conditions.
Oluwabukola and Odemerho were arraigned on July 30, 2024, by the Police Special Fraud Unit.
They are facing four counts bordering on conspiracy, unauthorised access into the company’s web-based platform known as Application Programming Interface and unlawful conversion, preferred against them by the police.
The police prosecution counsel, Justine Enang, told the court that the defendants committed the alleged offences with others now at large.
Enang told the court that Oluwabukola and Odemerho, said to be students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic Abeokuta, Ogun State, and Resign Regal Academy in Benin City, Edo State, respectively, committed the offences sometime between January and April 2024, in Lagos and Edo states.
He said that the duo allegedly hacked into the MTN web-based platform known as Application Programming Interface, and stole N1.9bn worth of airtime and data.
According to the prosecutor, the offences committed 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.
He added that the offences also contravened Section 18(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prevention And Prohibition) Act, 2022, punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.
However, the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges against them.
Following their not-guilty plea, the prosecutor asked the court for a trial date and urged the court to remand them in the custody of a correctional centre till the determination of the charge.
But, the defence lawyer informed the court that he had filed two applications for bail and the same had been served on the prosecutor.
In response, the prosecutor confirmed being served with the bail applications but told the court that he was served while the proceedings were going on.
He asked the court for a short date to enable him to study the applications and respond to them.
Consequently, Justice Aluko adjourned the case till August 5, 2024, for a hearing of the defendants’ bail applications.
Madukwe B. Nwabuisi is an accomplished journalist renown for his fearless reporting style and extensive expertise in the field. He is an investigative journalist, who has established himself as a kamikaze reporter.
