Nigeria’s music prodigy, Azeez Fashola, better known as Naira Marley had another date at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi on Thursday, with a cybercrimes expert, Whyte Dein testifying that a forensic investigation by his team has linked the hip-hop to a Visa card fraud.
Mr Dein, a Chief Detective Officer and Head of the Cybercrime Section of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was testifying before Justice Nicholas Oweibo in Naira Marley’s trial for alleged cybercrime offences. The witness was led in evidence by EFCC prosecutor Mr Rotimi Oyedepo.
According to the EFCC, Naira Marley committed the offences on different dates between November 26, 2018, and December 11, 2018, as well as May 10, 2019.
The EFCC alleged that some of the credit cards discovered in the defendant’s residence bore the fictitious names Nicole Louise Malyon and Timea Fedorne Tatar.
These, the agency alleged, were used in furtherance of internet scams. Marley, who sang the hit songs ‘Soapy’ and ‘Am I a Yahoo Boy?’, pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on May 20, 2019, and is out on bail.
At the resumption of proceedings, Dein told the court that his team’s investigation revealed various messages sent from the defendant’s iPhone to one Raze, who had asked for a credit card number and validity date.
“One of our findings from the forensic report shows the exchange of chat messages with several persons when the defendant sent credit card details, including card numbers and expiration dates. Visa card details were one of those sent by the defendant to a certain person known on his contact list as Raze. This message sent Visa Card details to Raze, after which Raze replied to him that the card was not valid.
“We were able to establish through investigation the previous messages he sent with a wrong card that was indeed not valid. We then repeated the same process a second time which was now valid.”
