On Monday, the Federal High Court in Lagos granted N50 million bail each to Timothy Oluwabukola and Anthony Odemerho, students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and Resign Regal Academy, respectively.
They are accused of hacking into MTN Nigeria Communication’s computers and stealing airtime and data valued at N1.9 billion.
Justice Akintayo Aluko granted the bail after hearing two separate applications filed by the defendants. The judge also ordered that each defendant provide two sureties. One surety must be a civil servant employed by the federal or Lagos State government at grade level 14 or above, while the other must be a property owner within the court’s jurisdiction. The civil servant must submit a reference letter from their place of work and a letter of their last promotion, and the defendants must submit two recent passport photographs to the court registrar.
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All documents submitted by the sureties, including their residential addresses, must be verified by the prosecution. The court ordered that the defendants be remanded in the correctional center until their bail conditions are met.
Oluwabukola and Odemerho were arraigned on July 30, 2024, by the Police Special Fraud Unit. They face four counts, including conspiracy, unauthorized access to MTN’s web-based platform known as Application Programming Interface, and unlawful conversion. The offences allegedly took place between January and April 2024 in Lagos and Edo states.
According to the police prosecution counsel, Justine Enang, the alleged offences contravene 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. The offences also violate Section 18(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act.
The defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges. Following their plea, the prosecutor requested a trial date and urged the court to remand the defendants in custody. However, the defense lawyer had already filed for bail and served the prosecutor, who confirmed receipt during the proceedings and requested time to review the applications.
Justice Aluko adjourned the case until August 5, 2024, for the hearing of the bail applications.
