Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola has spoken on how a fraudster had hacked into his account and defrauded him of the sum of N3.1Million.
The suspect Malik Wakili who was docked at the Federal High Court, Lagos, before Justice C.J. Aneke was said to have “converted the total sum of N3,106,216, being the value of the minister’s Air-miles Skywards Account Number EK248739282 with the Emirate Airlines and which sum they reasonably ought to have known formed part the proceeds of their unlawful activity, to wit: fraud.”
In a statement by Fashola’s spokesman, Hakeem Bello, the minister neither knew nor transacted any business with the suspect that led to his being swindled rather, the suspect hacked into the minister’s internet account, creating a false identity and using it to buy first class tickets to various parts of the world.
The statement read: “The Minister neither knew nor transacted any business with the suspect that involved or would have led to his being swindled.
“The amount being mentioned was the worth of Air Miles which the suspect derived from fraudulently hacking into his (Minister’s) internet account and creating a false identity which he, among other benefits, used to buy first class tickets to various parts of the world.
“Having persistently hacked into the accounts for over a period of six years, the suspect was tracked by the Minister until enough evidence was gathered which was then passed on to the security agencies.”
