Many credit card numbers were extracted from Naira Marley’s phone – Witness

Etim Ekpimah

The second prosecution witness, PW2, Augustine Anosike, a forensic expert with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, in the case of Afeez Adeshina Fashola, also known as Naira Marley, on Tuesday, October 26, 2021, told Justice Nicholas Oweibo of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos how several credit card numbers were extracted while analysing the contents of a total of 2,410 messages found in the defendant’s mobile phone.

Naira Marley was arraigned by the EFCC on May 20, 2019, on an 11-count charge bordering on conspiracy, possession of counterfeit credit cards and fraud, to which he pleaded not guilty.

At the resumed sitting today, Anosike, who continued his examination in chief, told the court that Exhibit F was a conclusion of his analysis of the defendant’s iPhone X version 10.6, model A 1901, with number 07427343432 and an email, naimarley@icloud.com.

He also gave the IMEL number of the iPhone as: 35304509527532  as well as the SIM ICCID number as 8923420035948359826.

Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, Rotimi Oyedepo, he also told the court that “The Apple iPhone is a sophisticated device capable of storing a large volume of information.

“It is the SIM card that basically identifies users of applications like WhatsApp.

“It, therefore, means that as long as a number has already been registered with a particular WhatsApp account, it matters less if such a user leaves the country.”

In his further testimony, the PW2 said: “There are cases where a WhatsApp application can still be used even though the registered SIM card is not inserted in the phone.

“The chatting app used in the analysed device was WhatsApp.”

When asked to talk about his findings while analysing the phone, he told the court that a “total of 977 Short Message Service (SMS) and 1433 chat messages were discovered.

“We also discovered seven pending status update messages.

“On November 26, 2018, there was an outgoing message registered about 3.32 p.m., with a credit card number 5264711020433662.

“This message was sent to one Yadd.

“On December 11, 2018, there was an incoming message to the defendant’s device which read: ” Your One Time Passcode (OTP) to verify your mobile number is 248716; wasn’t you, please call us on 63450808500.”

According to him, another message was sent at 5.06 pm by one Hiya Bayi to a recipient with the name Raze on the same say.

The content of the message, he told the court, was another credit card number 42658840359132.

“The number of the sender is +447426343432, while that of the receiver is +447365280441.

“The incoming message reflected at 6.18 p.m. showed ” Not recognized.

“Other messages received on the same date include:” due to trying in 20 minutes,” he added.

The prosecution witness, while giving further evidence, told the court that there was an incoming message which read: “Tried and it was unsuccessful; sure, you are not rinsing it out then giving it to me to try.” On December 12, 2018, at 10.16p.m.

During the proceedings, the PW2 also revealed several credit card numbers sent on different dates and times as well as OTP codes sent found in the defendant’s phone.

The prosecution counsel, thereafter, told the court that all the analysed texts were fully contained in a Compact Disc (CD).

He, however, told the court that the prosecution had only printed out those portions it considered material to its case.

Consequently, he asked both the court and the defence counsel, Olalekan Ojo, SAN, if the prosecution could bring a projector to play the CD in the open court or not.

Justice Oweibo granted his prayer.

Also, Ojo did not raise any objection to the request by the prosecution.

The matter was adjourned to October 27, 2021, for the prosecution to play the CD on a projector.