Alleged Cyber Fraud: Several credit card numbers extracted from Naira Marley’s iPhone – EFCC testifies

The trial of Nigerian music star, Azeez Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley, on 11 charges bordering on conspiracy, possession of counterfeit cards and fraud, resumed on Tuesday, October 26 at the Federal High Court, Lagos.

The anti-graft agency had arraigned the artiste, who sang the popular song: “Am I a Yahoo Boy”, before the Federal High Court, Lagos.

The agency said the offences were committed on different dates between November 26, 2018, and December 11, 2018, as well as May 10, 2019.

The EFCC alleged that Naira Marley and his accomplices conspired to use different  ATM cards to defraud their victims.

The EFCC also said that the defendant possessed and used counterfeit credit cards belonging to different people, with intent to defraud others.

On Tuesday, October 26, the court listened to the testimony of a second prosecution witness, Anosike Augustine, a mobile forensic expert with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) after he was led in evidence by the prosecutor, Rotimi Oyedepo.

Anosike revealed how about 2,410 short messages were analysed from the iPhone of the defendant while also stating that different credit card numbers were extracted from the iPhone.

According to the witness, the Apple iPhone is a sophisticated device capable of storing a large volume of information, adding that it is the SIM card that basically identifies users of applications such as WhatsApp.

The witness said 977 Short Message Service (SMS) and 1,433 chat messages, were discovered in the accused’s iPhone while adding that there were also seven pending status update messages.

The witness also read out some credit card numbers and messages sent from the iPhone on different dates and times, as well as OTP codes sent.

After his testimony, the prosecutor informed the court that all the analysed messages were contained in a Compact Disc (CD) but that the prosecution had only printed out those portions which were material to its case.

The prosecutor then asked the court if he could play the CD, which was not objected to by the defence counsel, Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Olalekan Ojo .

Justice Nicholas Oweibo, adjourned till today, October 27, for the CD to be played.