On Monday, a Federal High Court in Lagos approved bail of N50 million each for Timothy Oluwabukola and Anthony Odemerho, two students from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and Resign Regal Academy, who are accused of hacking into MTN Nigeria Communication’s systems and stealing airtime and data worth N1.9 billion.
Justice Akintayo Aluko granted their bail after considering two separate bail applications submitted by the defendants.
Besides the bail amount, Aluko instructed the defendants to present two sureties each. One surety must be a civil servant employed by the federal or Lagos State government, holding at least a grade level 14 position. The second surety must own property within the court’s jurisdiction, provide proof of ownership, and swear an affidavit of means.
For the civil servant, a letter of reference from their workplace and a document confirming their most recent promotion are required. The defendants need to provide two recent passport photos to the court registrar.
Aluko directed the prosecution to verify all documents submitted by the sureties, including their home addresses.
Additionally, the court ordered that the defendants remain in the Correctional Centre until they meet their bail conditions.
Oluwabukola and Odemerho were brought before the court on July 30, 2024, by the Police Special Fraud Unit.
They are being charged with four counts related to conspiracy, unauthorized access to the company’s web-based platform called Application Programming Interface, and illegal conversion, as filed by the police.
The police prosecution lawyer, Justine Enang, informed the court that the defendants committed these alleged crimes along with others who are still at large.
Enang informed the court that Oluwabukola and Odemerho, reportedly students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic in Abeokuta, Ogun State, and Resign Regal Academy in Benin City, Edo State, respectively, committed the crimes between January and April 2024 in Lagos and Edo states.
He stated that the pair allegedly breached the MTN web-based platform, known as the Application Programming Interface, and stole airtime and data worth N1.9 billion.
The prosecutor indicated that these actions violated Sections 27(1)(b); 6(2) and 28(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015, as amended in 2024, and are punishable under Section 8(2) of the same Act.
He further noted that the crimes also breached Section 18(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and are punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.
Here is the paraphrased version of the given sentences:
The defendants, however, entered a plea of not guilty to the accusations brought against them.
After their not-guilty plea, the prosecutor requested the court to set a trial date and asked that the defendants be held in a correctional facility until the charges were resolved.
In contrast, the defense attorney informed the court that he had submitted two bail applications, which had already been served to the prosecutor.
In response, the prosecutor acknowledged receipt of the bail applications but noted that they were received during the ongoing proceedings.
He requested a short adjournment to review and respond to the applications.
As a result, Justice Aluko postponed the case to August 5, 2024, for a hearing on the defendants’ bail applications.
The PUNCH
