Absence of judge stalls trial of 109 foreign nationals arrested for ‘cybercrime’

The absence of the trial judge has stalled the trial of the 109 foreign nationals arrested for alleged cybercrime in Abuja.

The trial was scheduled to commence on Monday as it was the only case listed for the Ekerete Akpan, a judge at the federal high court in Abuja.

According to NAN, the trial could not proceed because the trial judge was absent from court.

The judge was said to have been in another official engagement. The case was subsequently rescheduled to July 2 and 3, 2025.

In November, 2024, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) said its operatives arrested 130 suspects for “high-level cybercrimes, hacking, and activities threatening national security”.

Muyiwa Adejobi, force spokesperson, had said the suspects comprise 113 foreign nationals, including 87 males and 26 females, and their 17 Nigerian collaborators.

They were arraigned on a six-count charge marked FHC/ABJ/CR/599/2024 bordering on cybercrime, money laundering and unlawfully residing in Nigeria.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

In one of the counts, the EFCC alleged that the defendants aided, abetted, and conspired among themselves “to commit an offence, to wit; cybercrime and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under section 27 (1) (b) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024)”.

They were also alleged to have “knowingly accessed a computer and network and input, alter, delete of suppress data resulting in inauthentic data with the intention that such inauthentic data will be considered or acted upon as If they were authentic or genuine and you thereby commit an offence contrary to and punishable under section 13 of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024)”.

In another count, the 109 defendants were accused of “knowingly and without authority caused loss of property to persons in Nigeria and outside Nigeria when you caused the inputting and suppression of data by deceiving people to believe that the unregistered and gambling platforms they were marketing were authentic for the purpose of conferring economic benefit on yourselves and you thereby commit an offence contrary to and punishable under section 14 (1) of the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, Etc) Act, 2015 (As Amended, 2024)”.