A 33-year-old man, Baderinwa Waheed, has been remanded in a custodial centre by an Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates Court in Ekiti State for allegedly diverting an N-Power beneficiary’s five months stipend.
Waheed was said to have committed the offence sometime in March 2021, according to the prosecutor, Olaolu Olayinka.
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Olayinka alleged that the defendant conspired with one Tiamiyu Salimot to commit a computer-related forgery and logged into one Adeola Olofin’s N-Power dashboard to defraud her.
They changed Olofin’s password, name and account number, thereby causing her to lose five months’ N-Power stipend calculated at N150,000.
The prosecutor said that the victim’s phone developed a fault as she forwarded her N-Power log in details to the defendant to help her check for messages.
He said that the defendant told the victim that there was no message.
According to the charge, the defendant “is reasonably suspected to have committed the offence of computer-related forgery sometime in March 2021.”
It stated that the defendant “conspired with one Tiamiyu Salimot knowingly and with intent to misrepresent and defraud, logged into Olofin Adeola’s N-Power dashboard, changed her password, name and account number to that of Tiamiyu Salimot, thereby causing the victim to lose five months’ N-Power stipend calculated at N150,000.
“The offences run contrary to sections 14 (1), (2) and (3) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition Prevention) Act, 2015.”
According to the prosecutor, the victim later discovered that the defendant hacked her account and diverted her details to his wife and collected Olofin’s stipends for five months.
The victim, in her statement to the Department of State Services, said, “I forwarded my N-Power details to the defendant to help me check if N-Power authorities sent any message to me as a result of my faulty phone.
“After checking, he told me no message was sent. I later went to check in another place where I discovered that the defendant had hacked into my account and diverted all my details to his wife, who was collecting my stipends for five months.
“The case was reported at the DSS office after exhausting all avenues to retrieve my money, hence, his arrest.”
The plea of the defendant was not taken.
The Chief Magistrate, Bankole Oluwasanmi, ordered his remand pending advice from the office of the state director of public prosecutions.
He said, “The accused person shall be taken into the custody of the Federal Correctional Centre, Ado Ekiti, thereat remanded for a period of first and initial period of 30 days.”
He adjourned the case until June 20 for further hearing.
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