N700,000.00 Fraud: WhatsApp Hacker Jailed

The Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, presided over by Justice Akintayo Aluko, has convicted and sent to prison, a WhatsApp hacker, Stephen Andrew Ojo, who defrauded his victim of a sum to the tune of Seven Hundred Thousand Naira.

Justice Aluko sentenced Ojo to 32 months imprisonment after he changed his earlier not-guilty plea, to a guilty plea when the matter came up for hearing last Friday.

It would be recalled that the convicted Ojo had earlier been arraigned by the Zone 2 Command of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, Onikan, Lagos, sometime in December 2023.

Ojo was specifically arraigned before Justice Aluko on a four-count charge of conspiracy, identity theft, obtaining the sum of N700,000.00 by false pretence and money laundering.

While being arraigned on the offence, the convicted Ojo had denied the allegation and pleaded not guilty to the charge.

But during the May 7, 2024, hearing on the matter, the WhatsApp hacker changed his earlier plea of not guilty and pleaded guilty to the four counts charge.

As a result, Justice Aluko adjourned the matter for a review of facts and sentencing.

In reviewing the facts of the case, the counsel for the police, Zebedee Arekhandia, called the Investigation Police Officer (IPO), Inspector Austin Egho, who investigated the matter to testify before the court.

Upon the conclusion of the review of the facts of the matter by the prosecution witness who also tendered some documentary exhibits which were admitted in evidence, the counsel for the police prayed to Justice Aluko to sentence the convict as charged based on his guilty plea, and the exhibits tendered before the court.

Consequently, the trial court sentenced the convicted Ojo to eight months imprisonment on each of the counts.

Justice Aluko also ordered that the jail term shall run concurrently and that the same would start running from the date he was arrested and detained by the police on December 20, 2023.

According to the police, the jailed Ojo, on September 12, 2023, at Ajao Estate, Lagos, conspired with others now at large and engaged in identity theft by hacking the WhatsApp account of one Mrs Laraba Shuaibu, and impersonated her.

The police counsel had notified Justice Aluko that the convict and others now at large, used the hacked WhatsApp account to fraudulently obtain the sum of N700,000.00 from one Mrs Osasu Tina Eriamiatoe.

The prosecutor further told Justice Aluko that the said sum was paid into the defendant’s Union Bank account and PalmPay account number 9550723433 belonging to one Michael Ijua.

The lawyer insisted that the offence is contrary to Sections 8(a) and 1(3)(a) and punishable under Section 1(3) of the Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act, 2006. 

Arekhandia equally hinted to the court that the offence contravened 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.

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