Justice J. K. Omotosho of the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has reserved judgment in the one count charge of fraud brought against a notorious hacker, Kelvin Okohwan by the Port Harcourt Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, till February 20 for ruling.

Okohwan was remanded in Prison  on Thursday January 23, after pleading guilty to an amended count for hacking into the facebook accounts of unsuspecting subscribers with fraudulent intent. The offence is  contrary to Section 12 (1) of the CyberCrime (Prohibition Prevention, etc) Act 2015 and punishable under same Section of the Act.

The charge reads: "That you, Kelvin Okohwan sometimes between January 2019 and February 2019 in Port Harcourt, Rivers State within the jurisdiction of this Honourable court did unlawfully intercept by technical means the facebook account of one Odili Charles with the intent to use it for fraudulent purposes and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 12 (1) of the CyberCrime (Prohiibition Prevention, etc) Act 2015 and punishable under same section of the same Act".

The defendant pleaded pleaded "guilty" to the amended charge.

In view of the plea by the defendant, prosecuting counsel K. W. Chukwumma informed the court that he had a witness in court, ready to testify in order to prove the facts of the case. The witness,  Micheal Edochie, an Operative of EFCC, and member of the team that investigated the matter, told the court that the defendant was arrested following complaints from members of the public.

He disclosed that  Okohwan has hacked and taken over one hundred facebook accounts, and was  involved in selling hacked Facebook accounts to other fraudsters who were using them for fraudulent activities.

Documents including intelligence reports, statement of the defendant, letters of investigation activities, responses from Airtel and one iPhone were tendered and marked as exhibits A, B ,C D, E, F, F1, G and H respectively.

The prosecuting counsel,  Chukwumma prayed the court to convict and sentence the defendant as charged.

Justice Omotosho ordered that the defendant be remanded in the Port Harcourt Correctional Centre  and  adjourned till February, 20, 2020 for judgment.

Media & Publicity
January 25, 2020