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The Federal High Court sitting in Abuja on Friday ordered the remand of 109 alleged foreign hackers that attempted to defraud Nigerians, in prison custody.
The defendants, who were identified as citizens of China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Brazil, Malaysia and Myanmar, are facing a six-count charge filed against them by the Cybercrime Unit of the Nigeria Police Force.
While Justice Ekerete Akpan remanded the male defendants at the Kuje Correctional Center in Abuja, he ordered that the females among them should be kept at Suleja Correctional Center in Niger State, pending their arraignment.
The court adjourned the matter till November 29 for the defendants to take their plea in the six-count charge filed against them.
Meanwhile, the five Brazilians that were listed as defendants in the charge, begged the court to conduct separate trials for them.
They equally begged the court not to remand them together with the other defendants.
The accused Brazilian Quintet- Lucas Costa Da Silver, Renan Ricardo Souza Rocha, Nelson Rocha Cardoso Neto, Rhuan Filippe Albuqverque Le Lonnes and Aguiar Rodrigues Djeanne told the court that they were afraid that they could be harmed by the other defendants.
Counsel to the Brazilians, Mr Eric Oba, who spoke on their behalf, told the court that his clients made extra-judicial statements to the police that their co-defendants were not happy about and added that, “The other defendants developed ill feelings for them after the statements. My clients are afraid for their safety and will wish to be allowed to remain at the police facility,” Oba added.
Apart from notifying the court of their intention to apply for the severance of their case from that of the other defendants, Oba stressed that his clients’ passports were seized from them by their employer after they arrived in Nigeria and made an oral application for the passports to be returned to the Brazilian government.
Earlier, counsel to the other defendants, James Onoja, SAN, persuaded the court to shelve their planned arraignment, following what he observed as discrepancies in their names.
Onoja noted that some of the names that were given to the defendants were not their proper names.
“My lord, I believe that it behoves the defendants to provide their travel documents so that their proper names will be reflected on the charge sheet.
“We think that the arraignment cannot happen this morning as scheduled. This application is brought in good faith and we urge my lord to grant it,” the defence counsel submitted.
Though the prosecution counsel, Mr A. A. Egwu, said he was not opposed to the request for the matter to be adjourned, he, however, drew the attention of the court to an ex-parte motion he filed for the defendants to be remanded in a correctional centre, pending their arraignment.
“My lord, we are currently overwhelmed. We don’t have the facility to keep all the defendants. The learned silk representing the defendants can confirm this. Our operation has been shut down,” Egwu pleaded.
Confirming the development, Onoja, aligned himself with the request for the defendants to be transferred to a correctional centre.
“I went there yesterday and my lord I saw them (defendants) sitting around, under the staircase, everywhere. It was not healthy at all. They (police) don’t have the facility for the volume of people I saw there yesterday,” Onoja told the court.
While adjourning the matter, Justice Akpan directed counsel for the Brazilians to file a formal application for the severance of the trial of his clients.
The court equally gave the nod for the other defendants to produce their travelling documents for their proper names to be ascertained since the prosecution maintained that most of them were arrested without their papers.
Police had told the court that the defendants were arrested at a building situated at plot 1906, Cadastral Zone 807, Katampe District of Abuja, where they were said to be engaging in cybercrime.
Aside from cybercrime, the defendants were also charged with money laundering and an allegation that they were residing in Nigeria, illegally.
It would be recalled that the defendants could not be arraigned on the last adjourned date due to the absence of any lawyer to represent them.
In the charge before the court, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/599/2024, police, alleged that the defendants conspired among themselves “to commit an offence, to wit; cybercrime and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 27 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024).”
They were also alleged to have “knowingly accessed a computer and network and input, alter, delete of suppress data resulting in inauthentic data with the intention that such inauthentic data will be considered or acted upon as If they were authentic or genuine and you thereby commit an offence contrary to and punishable under section 13 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024).”
Police told the court that the 109 defendants, “knowingly and without authority, caused loss of property to persons in Nigeria and outside Nigeria,” when they caused the inputting and suppression of data by deceiving people to believe that an unregistered gambling platforms they were marketing, were authentic.
It alleged that the deceptive action of the defendants was for them to confer economic benefits on themselves, thereby committing an offence contrary to and punishable under section 14 (1) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024).
More so, the prosecution alleged that the defendants, with intent to defraud, “did promote via electronic Messages on the internet, a fraudulent and unregistered gambling platform, materially misrepresenting facts about the said fraudulent gambling platform upon which reliance, persons in Nigeria and outside Nigeria suffered enormous economic losses and you thereby commit an offence contrary to and punishable under section 14 (2) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024).”
They were also alleged to have removed from Nigeria, “proceeds generated from operating a fraudulent and unregistered gambling platform, namely: 9f.com, c2.top, 8pg.top and you thereby commit Money Laundering, contrary to and punishable under section 18 of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”
Likewise, the defendants were accused of entering “the territory of the Federal Republic of Nigeria with a business permit of 30 days duration and failed, or neglected to leave the Nigerian territory at the expiration of the said permit and remained in Nigeria without a valid resident permit or appropriate valid visa and you thereby contrary to section 4 (2) and punishable under section 44 (1) (c) of the Immigration Act 2015.”
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