Four men, Richard Ironba Edemdem, Samuel Okpapi, Nelson Ojovbo and Bamigbade Olushola, who were arraigned before a Federal High Court, Lagos, for alleged tampering with MTN facilities and defrauding Subscribers to the tune of N37 million, were today admitted bail in the sum of N10 million with one surety each.
The four men were arraigned before Justice Mohammed Liman’s court last Wednesday by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Wednesday, on offences bordering on four counts charges of conspiracy, alleged unlawfully disabling Double-Opt-In (DOI) features on a critical MTN Nigeria Communication Ltd Network System and N37 million fraud.
The EFCC alleged the defendants committed the offences while working as a subcontractor providing services to Huawei Technologies Company (Nigeria) Limited, conspired with some other persons to unlawfully manipulate and modify the MTN DOI features for their financial benefits.
DOI feature is a chargeable service to MTN subscribers who wish to register for the service.
The MTN User/Subscriber has to agree to the service by responding to a USSD notification sent to them by SDP (Service Delivery Platform).
By modifying the system, the defendants fraudulently disabled the D01 and subscribed Users automatically for the services. The Users Were consequently charged without their consent.
The offences according to the EFCC’s Chief Legal Officer, Anselem Ozioko are contrary to sections 27(1)(b), 10 and of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention Etc) Act 2015 and punishable under the same section of the Act. And section 15(2)(d) and (6) of the Money Laundering Prohibition Act, 2011 as (Amended) and punishable under he some Section at the Act.
The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Following their not guilty plea, the Ozioko asked the court for a trial date and that the defendants be remanded in custody pending the determination of the charges against them.
However, the defendant’s lawyers: G. O. Ajila, Seye Demuren and Olumide Esan, told the court that they have filed separate bail applications on behalf of their clients.
The applications they said were filed on Wednesday morning and they are ready to proceed.
But Ozioko insisted that he needed time to respond to each of the applications.
He also asked the court to adjourned the matter to March 4 and 11, 2020, for trial of the defendants.
He particularly asked the court for the dates, because his first witness, a staff of Huawei International will be coming from South Africa to testify in the case.
Upon the submissions made by both parties, the trial judge, Justice Mohammed Liman remanded the defendants in the custody of the Nigerian Correctional Services (NCS).
The judge also adjourned the matter till February 19 and March 4 and 11, 2020, for the hearing of the defendants’ bail applications and commencement of trial. .
At the resumed hearing of the defendants’ bail applications, their counsel and the prosecuting counsel, told the court that the business of court today is for hearing and determination of their bail applications.
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