The convicted cyber fraudsters. Photo credit: @officialEFCC
A Special Offences Court in Ikeja, Lagos, has slammed two men, Hamza Zakaria and Nurudeen Mohammed Ibrahim, with jail terms after they admitted to playing key roles in a staggering ₦8.56 billion cyber-fraud that compromised the computer systems of a new-generation bank.
Justice Rahman Oshodi delivered the verdict on Tuesday, November 18, 2025, bringing closure to a case that began earlier in the year and exposed one of the most audacious hacking schemes the bank has ever faced.
Zakaria and Ibrahim were first arraigned on May 2, 2025, on a four-count charge that included conspiracy, stealing, and unauthorised access to a computer system—all offences under the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.
One of the charges read:
“HAMZA ZAKARIA AND NURUDEEN MOHAMMED IBRAHIM and other persons at large, sometime in January 2025 at Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, conspired amongst yourselves to transfer and otherwise retain criminal proceeds from unauthorized access to Wema Bank’s computer and servers.”
Another count accused them of helping to funnel ₦24,890,000 into an account belonging to Exact Group Limited—funds described as a fraction of the ₦8,568,090,500 siphoned from multiple Wema Bank customer accounts via illicit server access.
Both men initially pleaded not guilty. But after the prosecution amended the charges, they made a dramatic U-turn on Friday, November 14, 2025, and entered guilty pleas, paving the way for immediate conviction.
During the review of the case, prosecuting counsel M.K. Bashir called EFCC operative Airende Monday, who detailed how investigators traced the stolen funds and the digital break-in. The court admitted several documents as evidence.
Justice Oshodi, in his ruling, declared:
“I find the defendants guilty in the two-count amended information, and I convict them accordingly. This is the judgment of the court.”
He sentenced each of them to eight months’ imprisonment on the first count and one year and six months on the second count, with both terms to run concurrently. The judge also gave an option of a ₦50,000 fine.
The sentencing follows their arrests earlier in the year after investigators uncovered that the duo had hacked into the bank’s system and diverted funds running into ₦8.56 billion.
With Tuesday’s judgment, the long-running case has formally closed—at least for the two men who confessed—while other suspects “at large” remain on law-enforcement radar.
