Court remands man for alleged N-POWER stipend fraud

An Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court has ordered remand of a 33-year-old man, Baderinwa Waheed, who allegedly stole an N-Power beneficiary’s five months stipend.

The defendant, whose address was not provided, is charged with forgery, stealing and fraud.

According to the prosecutor, Mr Olaolu Olayinka, the defendant committed the offences sometime in March 2021 in Ado-Ekiti.

Olayinka alleged that the defendant conspired with one Tiamiyu Salimot to commit a computer-related forgery and log into one Adeola Olofin’s N-POWER dashboard to defraud her.

He alleged that the defendant and Salimot changed Olofin’s password, name and account number, thereby causing her to lose five months’ N-POWER stipend calculated at N150,000.

The prosecutor said that the victim’s phone developed a fault as she forwarded her N-POWER log in details to the defendant to help her check for messages.

He said that the defendant told the victim that there was no message.

According to him, the victim later discovered that the defendant hacked her account and diverted her details to his wife and collected Olofin’s stipends for five months.

Olayinka said that the offences contravened Section 14(1), (2) and (3) of the Cybercrime (Prohibition Prevention) Act, 2015.

The plea of the defendant was not taken.

The Chief Magistrate, Mr Bankole Oluwasanmi, ordered his remand pending advice from the office of the state director of public prosecutions.

He adjourned the case until June 20 for mention.