EFCC Arraigns Alleged Oil Thief, Notorious Hacker In Portharcourt

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Port Harcourt Zonal office on Tuesday, 15 July, 2020 arraigned one Ahweyevu Ese before Justice I.M. Sani of Federal High Court Sitting in Port Harcourt on one count charge bordering on illegal dealing in petroleum Product without appropriate license.

The charge read: “That you Ahweyevu Ese, on or about the 19th of August, 2019, at Okrika, Rivers State, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did deal in petroleum product to wit: loading illegally refined Automative Gas Oil into your Mack Truck with registration number FST 320 XS without a lawful authority or an appropriate license and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 1(17) (a) of the Miscellaneous Offences Act, CAP M17 of the Reverse Edition (Laws of the Federation of Nigeria), 2007 and punishable under Section 1 (17) of the same Act”.
He pleaded “not guilty” to the charge.

In view of his plea, prosecution counsel F.O Amama prayed the court to remand the defendant in Port Harcourt Custodial Centre pending the commencement of trial.

However, the defense counsel G.C. Oraekelem urged the court to grant the defendant bail but was opposed by the prosecution.

Justice Sani ordered the remand of the defendant in the EFCC custody and adjourned the matter till July 21, 2020 for determination of the bail application.

In a related development, Marthin Ajare was also arraigned before Justice Sani on a two count charges bordering on email compromise, impersonation and internet fraud. The suspect is allegedly the leader of a loose syndicate of cyber criminals engaged in Business Email Compromise (BEC) and associated cyber intrusion.

He is alleged to have hacked into email accounts of different companies and persons in the United State of America.
One of the count read: “That you Marthin Ajare, sometimes between 2016 to 2019 in Port Harcourt within the jurisdiction of this honourable court did unlawfully used your addresses viz; anumaj24@mail.com and kingstone83@mail.com to spy, store, access, monitor, and intercept by technical means, the email addresses and cyber communications of members of the public in web-based mail with the intent to engage and benefit from business email compromise (BEC) and associated cyber intrusions, thereby committed an offense contrary to Section 9(1) Of Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act, 2015 and punishable under Section 12(1) Of the same Act”.

He pleaded “not guilty” to the charges.

In view of his plea, the prosecution prayed the court for a short date to prove its case. Thereafter, Justice Sani thereafter adjourned the matter till July 21, 2020, for trial