The Police Special Fraud Unit have arraigned students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, and Resign Regal Academy, Timothy Oluwabukola and Anthony Odemerho, for allegedly hacking MTN Nigeria Communication Plc’s computers and stealing airtime and data valued at N1.9bn.
Oluwabukola and Odemerho who were arraigned before the Federal High Court in Lagos on Tuesday are facing four counts bordering on conspiracy, unauthorised access into the company’s web-based platform known as Application Programming Interface and unlawful conversion, preferred against them by the police.
He said the defendants conspired and accessed the telco’s Application Programming Interface and obtained data from the said application, which they used to defraud MTN to the tune of N1.9bn.
According to the prosecutor the offences committed contravened Sections 27(1)(b); 6(2) and 28(1)(b) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015 as amended in 2024, but punishable under Section 8(2) of the same Act.
He added that the offences also contravened Section 18(2)(b) of the Money Laundering (Prevention And Prohibition) Act, 2022, punishable under Section 18(3) of the same Act