Wednesday 27th Oct.2021:The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Wednesday, displayed before a Federal High Court in Lagos, a virtual projection of a Compact Disc with 51,933 pages analysis of the iPhone of popular Nigerian singer, Azeez Fashola a.k.a Naira Marley.
A forensic analyst with the EFCC, Mr Augustine Anosike,projected the virtual,on behalf of the commission.
Anosike was still leading pieces of evidence in the trial of Naira Marley, who is facing an 11 counts charge, bordering on conspiracy, possession of counterfeit credit cards as well as fraud.
The agency presented the charges on May 14, 2019, on Naira Marley, who sang the popular song: “Am I a Yahoo Boy”. He was consequently, arraigned on May 20, 2019, before Justice Nicholas Oweibo, but he pleaded not guilty.
However ,the court had granted him bail in the sum of two million naira, with two sureties in like sum.
The trial had since commenced in the case and the second prosecution witness who began his testimony shortly before the covid 19 lockdown in 2020, continued his evidence on Wednesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the witness who resumed his testimony on Tuesday concluded his evidence after the virtual display.
The Prosecution Counsel, Mr Rotimi Oyedepo, had told the court at the last adjourned date, that the prosecution only printed out hard copies of relevant portions of the exhibit, which it considered key to its case.
He had told the court that a full version of the total analysis was contained in a compact disc.
The printed copies of the exhibit is labelled ‘exhibit F’ while the CD containing full analysis is ‘exhibit F1’
The court had granted prosecution leave to display the CD in a projector, in order to discharge its burden of proof as required by law.
Also on the last adjourned date, the witness had narrated, how different text messages and chats containing credit card details, were exchanged between the defendant and another recipient identified as Yadd.
When the trial resumed on Wednesday, the witness, again reiterated portions of his earlier testimonies of October 26, and indicated the visual spots of those testimonies, on the screen of the projected CD.
For instance, the witness showed visual displays of the credit card numbers, chats, as well as incoming and outgoing short message services, which were analysed from the defendant’s iPhone.
The witness typically identified the “message trafficking” between the numbers +447426343432 and +447548061528.
On the whole, he told the court that the CD contained a total of 51,933 pages of the analysis conducted on the defendant device.
Justice Oweibo adjourned the trial until November 30, December 13, and December 14.
According to the EFCC, the defendant committed the offence on different dates between November 26, 2018, and December 11, 2018, as well as May 10, 2019.
The commission alleged that Naira Marley and his accomplices conspired to use different Access Bank ATM cards to defraud their victims.
It alleged that the defendant used a bank credit card issued to another person, in a bid to obtain fraudulent financial gains.
The EFCC also said that the defendant possessed counterfeit credit cards belonging to different people, with intent to defraud which amounted to theft. The alleged offence contravenes the provisions of sections 1 23 (1) (b), 27 (1) and 33(9) of Cyber Crime (Prohibition) Prevention Act, 2015.
