EFCC arraigned suspect without link to Fraud, Court told

Admin l Sunday, July 04, 2021

 

UYO, Nigeria – A Federal High Court sitting in Uyo was stunned earlier in the week when an investigation officer of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Mubarak Sade,  told the court that none of the email addresses used in defrauding Norwegians was linked to the defendant who is standing trial.

The witness made this known in his testimony before the Court while being cross examined by the lead defense counsel Oladayo Ogungbe. Sade was led in evidence by the EFCC Counsel Nwandu Ukoha, to reveal findings of investigation conducted over a petition received from Norwegian Police authorities relating to cyber crimes and alleged fraud.

During cross examination, Ogungbe asked the investigator if the defendant’s name appeared on any of the petitions received from the Norway Police authorities.

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In his response, Sade who told the court that the defendant name didn’t appear in any of the petition, however, said that the flight ticket extracted from the  computer hacked bear the name of the defendant. When been asked if the Commission in the course of investigation carried out forensic analysis over various emails send by the Norway Authorities to ascertain the authenticity of the alleged fraud, Sodiq said that the Commission relied on the petition for their further investigation, noting that they are not part of the Norway investigation team.

The defense counsel, Ogungbe urged the court to have it on record that EFCC only acted on hearsay to arrest and arraign their clients without a prima facie linking him to the alleged fraud.

Ogungbe asked further if the defendant phone number was linked to any of the identified emails, the investigator explained to court that his phone number was only linked to the flight ticket.

According to the EFCC Investigator, the commission did analysed the defendant email, and account details but were unable to find a nexus between the emails.

After his testimonies, Mr. Ogungbe was granted leave to recall the third prosecution witness, a polygraph. Subsequently the presiding judge, Justice Agatha Okeke adjourned the matter till July 19. The defendant, Scale Olatunji Ishola was arraigned by the Commission on a 50 count charges which borders on  cybercrimes and fraud. An allegations the defendant pleaded not guilty to