N150m Fraud: Court Grants Suspected Banks’ Hackers N10m Bail

N150m Fraud: Court Grants Suspected Banks’ Hackers N10m Bail

Justice Chuka Obiozor of the Federal High Court in Lagos Thursday granted 10 men accused by the police of hacking into some bank accounts to steal N150 million bail in the sum of N10 million with one surety each.
The men were arraigned before the court on July 20, this year, by the Special Fraud Unit of the Nigerian Police, on six count charges, including conspiracy and fraud.
The 10 accused persons are: Ismaeel Salami, 49; Akinola Oghuan, 34; Sarumi Abubakar, 32; Salako Idowu Abdulsalam, 30; Chukwumnonso Ifeanyi, 30.
Others are: Okpetu John, 29; James Idagu, 56; Oyelade Shola Isaac, 32; Osuolale Hammid, 40; and Akeem Adesina, 40.
Justice Obiozor admitted them to the bail in sum, after taking arguments from both parties on their bail applications.
The court also ordered that the surety must be a landed property owner within Lagos State, with  filed title document before the registry of the court.
The court also ordered that each of the surety must furnish the court with three years tax payment, and that both the surety and each of defendants must submit their recent passport photographs with the registry of the court after having ensured that all the documents must be verified by the court’s Deputy Chief Registrar (DCR).
Justice Obiozor however ordered that all accused persons be remanded at Ikoyi Prison Service, pending the time they are able to perfect the bail conditions.
In the charge marked FHC/L/248c/17, SFU alleged that the 10 defendants had sometimes in March, 2017, conspired among themselves to fraudulently obtain and transfer the sum of N150 million from various banks customers’ accounts without any authority to do so.

They were also alleged to have blocked the fraud victims’ GSM numbers, so that they will be unable to receive alerts of any financial transactions within the period their accounts are being siphoned.