The Federal High Court in Lagos yesterday heard that electronic tools specifically used for accessing compromised credit card information and for disguising the identity and location of the card user were found on a laptop seized from hip-hop singer, Azeez Fashola a.k.a. Naira Marley.
A cyber crimes expert, Whyte Dein, told Justice Nicholas Oweibo that the laptop was registered to Naira Marley.
Mr. Dein, a Chief Detective Officer and Head of the Cybercrime Section of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), was testifying in Naira Marley’s trial for alleged cybercrime offences.
The witness was led in evidence by EFCC prosecutor Mr. Rotimi Oyedepo.
According to the EFCC, Naira Marley committed the offences on different dates between November 26, 2018 and December 11, 2018, as well as May 10, 2019.
The EFCC alleged that some of the credit cards discovered in the defendant’s residence bore the fictitious names Nicole Louise Malyon and Timea Fedorne Tatar.
These, the agency alleged, were used in furtherance of internet and other related scams.
Marley, who sang the hit songs ‘Soapy’ and ‘Am I a Yahoo Boy?’ pleaded not guilty during his arraignment on May 20, 2019, and is out on bail.
At the court’s last sitting on June 9, defence counsel, Mr. Olalekan Ojo, SAN objected to Dein’s opinion on the forensic evidence pointing to the defendant as being involved in credit card fraud.
He contended that it was the Judge that could declare that Marley had been involved in the crime and not an investigator.
He was opposed by Oyedepo, who, among others, distinguished the findings of an investigating officer from that of a court.
At the resumed proceedings yesterday, Justice Oweibo upheld Oyedepo’s submission.
“It is the duty of the law enforcement agencies or police charging a person to court to investigate if the defendant committed the crime or not.
“The investigator must be able to link the defendant to the commission of the crime.
“The prosecutor must have made up his mind as to the involvement of the defendant before bringing the case to court.
“I do not agree the prosecution has declared the defendant guilty,” the Judge ruled.
Following this, Dein resumed his testimony.
He said: “From my findings, it was clearly established that the defendant through his phone had in his possession credit card details that did not belong to him.
“That he shared this credit card information with another person and it was also discovered that a fraud report had been generated for the same credit card, stating that it had been used fraudulently.
“Investigation also revealed that the defendant had on his laptop which is registered to him, and recovered from him, electronic tools that are specifically used for accessing compromised credit card information as well as other electronic tools that are used to disguise both the identity and location of anybody accessing compromised credit cards in real-time on the internet.
“Those were my findings.”
Prompted by Oyedepo, he resumed his analysis of the forensic report of the exhibits said to have been recovered from Marley.
Dein alleged that the defendant had running on his computer a VPN called IP Varnish (a tool used to disguise the identity and location of the user).