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The Police Special Fraud Unit in Ikoyi, Lagos, has charged two students, Timothy Fashina Oluwabukola and Anthony Imonina Odemerho, with hacking into MTN Nigeria Communication Plc’s system and stealing airtime and data valued at N1.9 billion. The accused, from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic (MAPOLY) in Abeokuta and Resign Regal Academy in Benin City, appeared before the Federal High Court in Lagos.
The men are facing a four-count indictment, including conspiracy, unauthorized access to MTN’s Application Programming Interface (API), and unlawful conversion. They are alleged to have committed these crimes between January and April 2024 in Lagos and Edo states.
Prosecution counsel Justine Enang claimed that Oluwabukola and Odemerho, along with others still at large, illegally accessed MTN’s API to defraud the company. The charges against them contravene the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act of 2015, as amended in 2024.
Both defendants have pleaded not guilty. Their defense has filed bail applications, which are pending review. Justice Akintayo Aluko has scheduled a hearing for August 5 to address the bail requests.
The charges allege that the accused manipulated MTN’s computer system to convert airtime into data, which was then sold to the public. This alleged activity resulted in a substantial financial loss to MTN Nigeria.
