By Oluwatosin Maliki
A man identified as Stephen Andrew Ojo, has been remanded by a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, at the Ikoyi centre of the Nigerian Correctional Services for allegedly hacking a WhatsApp account and obtaining N700,000.
Justice Akintayo Aluko, who presided over the case remanded the defendant following his arraignment before the court by the officers of the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, Lagos.
Quest Times gathered that Ojo was stood trial on four count charges bordering on conspiracy, identity theft, and obtaining by false pretence.
During the court proceeding, on Wednesday, the police prosecutor, Zebedee Arekhandia, said that when the defendant was arraigned, the suspect and others now at large, on September 12, 2023, at Ajao Estate, Lagos, conspired among themselves and engaged in an identity theft, by hacking the WhatsApp of one Mrs. Laraba Shuaibu, and impersonated her.
Also, Arekhandia stated that the alleged WhatsApp hacker alongside other accomplices at large used the hacked WhatsApp platform to fraudulently obtain the sum of N700, 000, from one Mrs. Osasu Tina Eriamiatoe.
Furthermore, the prosecutor informed the court that the money was paid into the defendant’s Union Bank account and PalmPay account number 9550723433 belonging to one Michael Ijua.
Hence, he said the offences committed contravened Sections 8(a) and 1(3)(a) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006, and Sections 24 (2)(a)(b) (i)(ii) and (iii) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015. And Section 15 (1) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2022 as amended in 2012.
However, the defendant denied all allegations levelled against him, pleading not guilty to the charges.
Afterwards, Justice Aluko, who is the vacation judge, recorded a ‘not guilty plea’ for him and ordered that he should be remanded at the Ikoyi centre of the NCoS till January 24, 2024, pending the time the court’s Chief Judge would reassign his case file to the substantive judge.