The two students accused of hacking into MTN Nigeria’s computer systems and stealing airtime and data worth N1.9 billion have been granted N50 million bail each by a Federal High Court in Lagos.
Justice Akintayo who delivered the judgment on Tuesday after considering the two separate applications filed by the defendants, Timothy Oluwabukola and Anthony Odemerho.
Asides the substantial bail amount, the court stipulated that each defendant must provide two sureties and one of the sureties must be a Federal or Lagos State civil servant of grade level 14 or above.
He added that the civil servant surety must submit a reference letter from his place of work and a letter of their last promotion alongside two recent passport photographs to the court registrar.
Also, the second surety must own property within the court’s jurisdiction, provide evidence of ownership, and swear an affidavit of means.
Oluwabukola and Odemerho, students of Moshood Abiola Polytechnic and Resign Regal Academy, respectively, were arraigned on July 30, 2024, by the Police Special Fraud Unit.
The duo are facing a four count charge of conspiracy, unauthorized access to MTN’s web-based platform known as Application Programming Interface, and unlawful conversion.
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 further 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.
Until the bail conditions are met, the defendants will remain in the Correctional Centre.
