The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has preferred
11 charges bordering on fraud against upcoming musician, Azeez Fashola, aka
Naira Marley, for 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 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 honourable court, with intent to
defraud possessed counterfeit card 4921819410257431 issued to Timea
FedorneTatar and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable
under Section 33(9) of Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015.”
The artiste has been
enmeshed in controversy in the last one month following his decision to openly
support online fraud commonly called ‘Yahoo Yahoo’. He was arrested last Friday
along with four others including his bosom friend, Zlatan Ibile.
