A Federal High Court, Ikoyi, Lagos, presided over by Justice Ambrose Lewis Allagoa has ordered a legal practitioner, Mr Nnamdi Awa Kalu, to appear before the court on July 9, 2025, to explain the whereabouts of his client, Richard Ironbar Edemadem, who is standing trial for alleged N36.8 million cyber-related fraud but has reportedly jumped bail.
Edemadem, alongside four others, Samuel Okpapi, Nelson Ojovbo, Bamigbade Olushola, and ISD Technology Limited, is being prosecuted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly tampering with MTN Nigeria’s mobile telecommunications infrastructure and defrauding the company by illegally sending unsolicited messages to its subscribers.
At the resumed proceedings, the EFCC’s counsel, Mr Nnemeka Omewa, informed the court that the first defendant, Edemadem, had disappeared without a trace and had stopped communicating with both his legal representative and the court.
He further disclosed that Mr Kalu, the lawyer who had previously represented the defendant, had also ceased attending court sessions and was unreachable.
Justice Allagoa expressed concern over the continued absence of Edemadem, especially as his name featured prominently in the testimony of the prosecution’s witness.
The judge also queried the lack of action to bring the sureties who guaranteed Edemadem’s bail before the court.
In response, Omewa stated that efforts had been made to trace the sureties and review the documents filed at the time of the defendant’s bail.
However, he revealed that the EFCC discovered no valid records or contact addresses for the sureties in the court’s file, an omission the judge described as deeply troubling.
Reacting to this revelation, Justice Allagoa directed that Mr Kalu must appear in court at the next hearing to provide clarity on his client’s disappearance and account for his own absence from the proceedings.
Meanwhile, the trial continued with the testimony of the fourth prosecution witness, Mr. Olamide Sadiq, an EFCC investigative officer.
Sadiq gave a detailed account of how the defendants allegedly manipulated MTN’s critical network infrastructure to fraudulently disseminate bulk unsolicited messages to unsuspecting customers.
He told the court that the accused, who worked with various value-added telecom service providers as IT experts, exploited MTN’s systems between 2017 and 2018 to send mass messages that resulted in unauthorised deductions from subscribers' airtime accounts.
According to Sadiq, the illicit gains, amounting to N36,837,438.20, were funnelled into multiple bank accounts linked to the defendants and ISD Technology Limited.
The witness noted that the fraud proceeds were later shared among the co-conspirators.
Following the testimony, the judge adjourned the matter to July 9, 2025, for continuation of the trial and for Mr Kalu to appear and respond to questions about his client's conduct and disappearance.
The EFCC had brought a three-count charge against the defendants, accusing them of cybercrimes, unlawful tampering with critical telecommunications infrastructure, and money laundering.
In the first count, Edemadem and his co-defendants—Okpapi, Ojovbo, Olushola, ISD Technology Limited, and a still-at-large accomplice known only as “Sola”, were charged with conspiring to tamper with a critical mobile telecommunications system, contrary to Sections 27(6)(b) and 10 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act, 2015.
The second count alleged that the defendants unlawfully tampered with MTN’s telecom infrastructure in violation of Section 10 of the Cybercrimes Act.
The third count accuses them of having the sum of N36,837,438.20, which they allegedly knew was proceeds of unlawful activities, an offence contrary to Sections 15(2)(d) and (6) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended).
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