EFCC Slams 11 Charges Against Naira Marley

After being detained for over a week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission will on Monday formally dock Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley, before a Lagos Federal High Court over allegations of card theft and forgery.

In all, the anti-graft agency in the case marked FHC/L/178c/19, has slammed 11-count charge against the musician and his cohorts, many of who are now at large.

Details of the court papers obtained by Vanguard show that most of the charges border on use of forged or stolen access card to obtain money, offences, which are punishable by the Cyber Crimes Prohibition law of Nigeria.

Count One of the charges reads: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley and Yad Isril (still at large) on or about the 26th day of November 2018, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired among yourselves to use access card No. 5264711020433662 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 32 of the same act.

Count Two reads: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley and Yad Isril (still at large) on or about the 26th day of November 2018, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court attempted to use card No. 5264711020433662 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 32 of the same act.

Count three says: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley and Raze (still at large) on or about the 26th day of November 2018, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired among yourselves to use access card No. 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 32 of the same act.

Count Four reads: “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 attempted to use card access No. conspired among yourselves to use access card No. 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 32 of the same act.

Count Five reads: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with an intent to defraud, possessed counterfeit card with No. 42658840359191132 issued to another person and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33 (9) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act, 2015.

Count Six: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with an intent to defraud, possessed counterfeit card with No. 5264711020433662 issued to another person and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33 (9) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act, 2015.

Count Seven: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with an intent to defraud, possessed counterfeit card with No. 5573793034017422 issued to another person and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33 (9) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act, 2015.

Count Eight: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with an intent to defraud, possessed counterfeit card with No. 4539782440624281 issued to Nicole Louise Malyon and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33 (9) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act, 2015.

Count Nine: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court with an intent to defraud, possessed counterfeit card with No. 4921819410257431 issued to Timea Fedorne Tatar and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33 (9) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act, 2015.

Count Ten: ““That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court attempted to retain possession of more than two cards issues in the name of different cardholders and which cards were retained under circumstances which constitute card theft and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27 (1) (a) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act, 2015 and punishable under section 34 of the same act.

Count 11: ““That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court did retain the possession of more than two cards issued in the name of different cardholders and which cards were retained under circumstances which constitute a card theft and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 34 of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, ETC) Act, 2015.

The charge dated May 14, 2019 was personally signed and collected by Naira Marley on May 15, 2019 who is still being detained by the EFCC in Lagos. Naira Marley is very popular among young Nigerian music lovers but was recently arrested by the anti-graft agency for alleged links and tacit support to ‘Yahoo boys’.