Upcoming musician, Azeez Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley, courted controversy when he openly supported youths involved in online fraud commonly called ‘Yahoo Yahoo’.
Following his arrest last Friday, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has preferred 11 charges bordering on fraud against him, including alleged credit card fraud.
The musician effectively risks seven years in jail if found guilty, as Section 33 (2) which he was accused of breaching, reads: “Any person who uses: a counterfeit access device; an unauthorised access device; an access device issued to another person; resulting in a loss or gain commits an offence and shall be liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of not more than seven years or a fine of not more than N5,000,000.00 and forfeiture of the advantage or value derived from his act.”
The charges with suit number FHC/L/178C/19 were filed before a Lagos State High Court.
Some of the credit cards, according to the EFCC, bore the names – Nicole Louise Malyon, and Timea Fedorne Tatar.
The alleged crimes were in contravention of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act and the Cyber Crimes Act.
The charges also read in part, “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley, and Raze (still at large), on or about the 11th day of December 2018, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired amongst yourselves to use Access card 42658840359191132 issued to persons other than you in a bid to obtain gain and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27(1)(b) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015 and punishable under Section 33(2) of the Same Act.
“That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley, and Raze (still at large), on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, with intent to defraud possessed, counterfeit card 4921819410257431 issued to Timea Fedorne Tatar and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33(9) of Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015.”
Punch