A Federal High Court seated in Lagos, on Wednesday, heard testimony that a laptop belonging to hip-hop artist Azeez Fashola, a.k.a. Naira Marley, had been found with electronic tools specifically used for accessing compromised credit card information and for hiding the name and location of the card user.
Speaking before the court was Whyte Dein, a cybercrime specialist, who testified before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, that the laptop was registered to Naira Marley.
Mr. Dein, a Chief Detective Officer and the Director of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s (EFCC) Cybercrime Section, testified about Naira Marley’s involvement in cybercrime offenses.
Prosecutor for the EFCC, Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo, presented the witness before the court.
The EFCC claims that Naira Marley committed the offenses between November 26, 2018, and December 11, 2018, as well as on May 10, 2019.
The agency stated that fake identities — Nicole Louise Malyon and Timea Fedorne Tatar, appeared on several of the credit cards found in the defendant’s home. It alleged that the names were employed to advance online fraud and other related schemes.
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These, according to the agency, were employed to advance online fraud and other associated crimes.
The singer of the popular songs “Soapy” and “Am I a Yahoo Boy?”, Marley, entered a not guilty plea during his arraignment on May 20, 2019, and was released on bail.
At the court’s most recent session on June 9, defense attorney Mr. Olalekan Ojo, SAN, objected to Dein’s assessment of the forensic evidence implicating the defendant in credit card fraud.
He argued that the Judge, not the investigator, had the authority to rule that Marley had participated in the crime.
The defense attorney was opposed by Oyedepo, who, among others, distinguished the findings of an investigating officer from that of a court.
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