Undergraduate, Okadaman in Court for Hacking Into Bank Accounts

A final year student of the Nmandi Azikiwe University  (NAU) Akwa is facing charges of forgery, stealing and fraud after he was arrested alongside a tricycle rider for allegedly hacking bank accounts of big companies and diverting millions of naira into personal accounts.

According to the police, the accused belong to a 3-man syndicate allegedly led by a 400 level Environmental Science undergraduate student of NAU identified as Patrick Nwafor who is on the run.

However, before the gang was exposed, they had succeeded in hacking into a law firm’s account with an old generation bank and diverted N8million.

The police arrested the undergraduate identified as Ebuka Orumba a 400 level Computer Engineering part -time student and his accomplice, a tricycle rider one Ator Kalu after the gang had diverted the said amount and attempted to withdraw the money.

The suspects who were charged at an Ikeja Magistrate court by policemen attached to the Special Anti -Robbery Squad Ikeja on a five count charge bordering on forgery, stealing and fraud however said they were lured into the crime by Nwofor.

Narrating their roles in the gang, Orumba in his confessional statement to the police said “Nwofor and I are friends in school. Nwofor sold the idea to me and he told me to recruit Ator. Nwofor is the brain behind the hacking. I acted as a facilitator. I don’t know much about the hacking stuff”

Narrating his role in the gang, the tricycle rider, Kalu, said “I know Orumba from Anambra. We are childhood friends from the same village. One fateful day, I had issues with my tricycle and I needed money to fix it.

I went to Orumba to help me with money but he told me that he can give me a job to help me with my problem.

Orumba took me to the licensing office at Ojodu Berger Office where he helped me to obtain a fake driver’s licence with the name Engineer Asukwo John Okoro. He gave me N2, 500 to open an account 2O86943174 with Zenith Bank.

Orumba told me that Nwofor will be paying some money into the account. After a while, Orumba told me to go to the bank and check that some money has been deposited in the account.

I went to the bank at Mushin to check but when I asked the branch manager, he told me that N3million was in the account.

I screamed as I had never expected such huge amount. I was trying to inform Orumba about the money but the bank manager told me that network was slow and I could not withdraw the money.

He told me to wait a while but to my shock, the branch manager was suspicious and he handed me over to the security in the bank. I was arrested and our gang was exposed”

According to police investigation, the gang allegedly hacked into the account of the law firm Simmons Cooper Partners and diverted N8million which they moved into three different accounts with fake identities and documents.

The police investigations further shows that the gang opened the accounts with the name Chief Ndumanya Raphael where they diverted N3million into an Access Bank account number 0047148640.

They allegedly diverted N2million into a GTBank account number 0164661104 with the false name Barrister Tochukwu Gospel Okika and another N3million was diverted into a Zenith Bank account 2086943174 with the name Bar. Asoquo John Okoro.

The charge sheet read, Count one reads “That you Ator Kalu,Ebuka Orumba and others at large on the 7th day of July,2015 at about 11.30hrs at Zenith Bank Plc Mushin branch Lagos in the Lagos Magisterial district did conspire together to commit felony to wit forgery and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 409 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

Count two reads: That you Ator Kalu, Ebuka Orumba and others at large on the same date,time and place in the Lagos Magisterial district did forge payment instruction mail in the name of Bidemi Oseni of Simmons Cooper Partners, addressed to the head Customer Service Unit UBA plc for the sum of Eight Million naira (N8million) and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 363(3)(h) of the criminal law of Lagos State 2011.

Count three reads: that you Artor Kalu, Ebuka Orumba and others at large on the same date, time and place in the aforesaid magisterial district did steal the sum of three million naira (N3,000,000.00) by causing the said amount to be fraudulently transferred from the account of Simmonscooper partners in a Zenith Bank account No. 2086943174 with false name Engr. Asukwo Okoro John and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 285 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

Count four read: that you Artor Kalu, Orumba and others now at large in the month of May 2015 at Ogba Lagos in the afore said Magisterial District did forge Nigeria Drivers license bearing the name of Asukwu John Okoro but with the photograph of Ator Kalu and thereby committed an offence punishable under section 363(2)(b) of the criminal Law of Lagos State 2011.

Count five reads: that you Artor Kalu sometime in the month of May,2015 at Zenith Bank Plc Mushin Branch Lagos in the aforesaid Magisterial District with intent to defraud did open an account with number 2086943174 with false documents bearing the name of Engr. Asukwo Okoro John and thereby committed an offence punishable under Section 363 of the criminal law of Lagos State 2011.

The accused who were arraigned on September 2nd however pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The magistrate Mrs. O.O Olanipekun granted the accused bail in the sum of N250,000 each and remanded them in prison custody.