Rising artiste, Afeez Fashola, popularly known as Naira Marley, was granted bail on Thursday by a Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos.
Naira Marley was arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over alleged involvement in internet fraud.
He had been remanded in prison before his bail application was granted.
During the resumed bail application, Naira Marley’s defense counsel, Olalekan Ojo, appealed to the court to accept the bail application prima facie based on the presumption of his innocence in accordance with Section 162 (1).
He also pleaded that a liberal approach should be taken in hearing the bail application.
It would be recalled that the spokesman of the EFCC, Mr. Tony Orilade, said there were 11 charges bordering on alleged credit card fraud against him.
If found guilty, Naira Marley risks seven years in jail in accordance with Section 33 (2) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) Act, 2015.
The charges against him read in part: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley, and Raze (still at large), on or about the 11th day of December 2018, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired amongst yourselves to use Access card 42658840359191132 issued to persons other than you in a bid to obtain gain and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27(1)(b) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015 and punishable under Section 33(2) of the Same Act.
“That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley, and Raze (still at large), on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, with intent to defraud possessed counterfeit card 4921819410257431 issued to Timea FedorneTatar and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33(9) of Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015.”
