The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Tuesday, presented fresh testimony in court in the case of Nigerian singer, Afeez Fashola popularly known as Naira Marley.
Augustine Anosike, a forensic expert with the EFCC, and its second prosecution witness (PW2) appeared before Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Anosike narrated how some credit card numbers were extracted while analyzing the contents of a total of 2,410 messages found in the defendant’s phone.
Naira Marley was arraigned by the EFCC on May 20, 2019, on an 11-count charge bordering on conspiracy, possession of counterfeit credit cards and fraud.
He pleaded not guilty.
The forensic expert told the court that 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, naimarley@icloud.com.
The detective gave the IMEI number of the iPhone as: 35304509527532 as well as the SIM ICCID number as 8923420035948359826.
He told prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, 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 means as long as a number has already been registered with a particular WhatsApp account, it matters less if such a user leaves the country.”
Anosike explained 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. 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.”
Anosike disclosed that another message was sent at 5.06pm by one Hiya Bayi to a recipient with the name Raze on the same say.
“The content 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 EFCC witness informed the court that another incoming message on December 12, 2018 at 10.16pm read: “Tried and it was unsuccessful; sure you are not rinsing it out then giving it to me to try.”
Anosike confirmed that all analysed texts were contained in a Compact Disc (CD); that the prosecution only printed out those portions it considered material to its case.
The expert asked the court and the defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo (SAN) if the prosecution could bring a projector to play the CD in the open court.
Justice Oweibo granted his prayer; Ojo did not raise an objection to the request.
The matter was adjourned to October 27, 2021, for the prosecution to play the CD on a projector.
