Breaking: EFCC Extracts Several Credit Card Numbers From Naira Marley’s Phone

An update has been released by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in respect to the fraud case filed against popular Nigerian singer, Naira Marley.

The second prosecution witness in the case filed against Afeez Adeshina Fashola, Augustine Anosike, a forensic expert with the commission, on Tuesday told Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, how several credit card numbers were extracted while analyzing the contents of a total of 2,410 messages found in the defendant’s mobile phone.

Recall that the anti-graft agency arraigned the singer in 2019 on an 11-count charge bordering on conspiracy, possession of counterfeit credit cards and fraud.

Naira Marley, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against him.

Anosike while speaking in the court on Tuesday said the Exhibit F was a conclusion of his analysis of the defendant’s iPhone X version 10.6, model A 1901, with number 07427343432 and an email, [email protected]

He also gave the IMEL number of the iPhone as: 35304509527532 as well as the SIM ICCID number as 8923420035948359826. Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, he also told the court that “The apple iPhone is a sophisticated device capable of storing a large volume of information.

“It is the SIM card that basically identifies users of applications like WhatsApp. It, therefore, means that as long as a number has already been registered with a particular WhatsApp account, it matters less if such a user leaves the country.”

The prosecution witness in his statement said: “There are cases where a WhatsApp application can still be used even though the registered SIM card is not inserted in the phone. The chatting app used in the analysed device was WhatsApp.”

When asked to talk about his findings while analyzing the phone, he told the court that a “ total of 977 Short Message Service (SMS) and 1433 chat messages were discovered.

“We also discovered seven pending status update messages.”

“On November 26, 2018, there was an outgoing message registered about 3.32 p.m., with a credit card number 5264711020433662.

“This message was sent to one Yadd. On December 11, 2018, there was an incoming message to the defendant’s device which read: ” Your One Time Passcode (OTP) to verify your mobile number is 248716; wasn’t you, please call us on 63450808500.”

The witness disclosed another message was sent at 5.06pm by one Hiya Bayi to a recipient with the name Raze on the same say.

He further stated that the content of the message that was sent from the phone was another credit card number 42658840359132.

“The number of the sender is +447426343432, while that of the receiver is +447365280441.

“The incoming message reflected at 6.18p.m. showed ” Not recognized”.

“Other messages received on the same date include:” due to try in 20 minutes,” he added.

The witness added that another message came in which read, “Tried and it was unsuccessful; sure you are not rinsing it out then giving it to me to try.” On December 12, 2018, at 10.16 p.m.

During the proceedings, the PW2 also revealed several credit card numbers sent on different dates and times as well as OTP codes sent found in the defendant’s phone.

The prosecution counsel, thereafter, told the court that all the analysed texts were fully contained in a Compact Disc (CD).

The council disclosed that the commission has only printed out those portions it considered material to its case.

The council asked both the court and the defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, if the prosecution could bring a projector to play the CD in the open court or not. Justice Oweibo granted his prayer.

Also, Ojo did not raise any objection to the request by the prosecution. The matter was adjourned to October 27, 2021, for the prosecution to play the CD on a projector.