WhatsApp Hacker Remanded In Custody In Lagos
The Federal High Court ,Lagos, has ordered that Stephen Andrew Ojo, a WhatsApp hacker, should be remanded in the Nigerian Correctional Services, Ikoyi.
Team@orientactualmags.com learned that Justice Akintayo Aluko ordered that Ojo should be remanded in custody sequel to the charges preferred against him by police officers attached to the Zone 2 Police Command, Onikan, Lagos.
Ojo is facing charges bordering on conspiracy, identity theft, and obtaining by false pretence.
The prosecutor, Zebedee Arekhandia, told the court on Wednesday that the defendant and others now at large, on September 12, 2023, at Ajao Estate, Lagos, conspired among themselves and engaged in identity theft, by hacking the WhatsApp of Mrs. Laraba Shuaibu, and impersonated her.
Arekhandia also added that the alleged WhatsApp hacker and others now at large used the hacked WhatsApp account to fraudulently obtain the sum of N700, 000, from one Mrs. Osasu Tina Eriamiatoe. The prosecutor further 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.
He noted that the offences they have 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.
While pleading guilty to the offences, Ojo however told the court that he was not the person who hacked the WhatsApp account.
Following his guilty plea and his statement, Justice Aluko, who is a vacation judge, recorded a ‘not guilty plea’ for him and ordered that he should be remanded in the Nigerian Correctional Services, Ikoyi until January 24, 2024, when the court’s Chief Judge is expected to reassign his case file to a substantive judge-Team@orientactualmags.com
Do you have any information you wish to share with us? Do you want us to cover your event or programme? Kindly send SMS to 08059100286, 09094171980. Thank you
