Court remands two in prison for allegedly cloning Governor Ambode’s number

A Lagos State High Court, on Monday, remanded Rilwan Jamiu and Balogun Oyewole, in prison for cloning the Globacom telephone number of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, and sending a text message to the Accountant General, Mrs. Umar Abimbola, asking her to pay N50m into an account.



The two defendants who are facing a three counts charge, including attempt to commit felony and obtaining money under false pretences, which they pleaded not guilty to, allegedly committed the offence at the Lagos State Treasury Office, Ministry of Finance, Alausa, Ikeja.

At the hearing, the Accountant General said, “On February 10, 2016, I received a text message at exactly 12.52pm. I initially thought the message was from the executive governor of Lagos State, because the name which I stored his number with was the same one that appeared in my inbox.

“The message read, ‘AG, urgently transfer N50m to Dayder Limited acc no 002806988 Keystone Bank. We will talk later, H.E.’

“I became suspicious because his Excellency does not send text messages for any payment. He calls us to his office when the need arises.

“This text message also looked strange because His Excellency would not end his message with H.E or start with AG. This was not his pattern. I put a call to the governor and he asked me to bring the phone for the security to investigate the text message since it did not come from him.”

Justice Sedoten Ogunsanya, however adjourned the matter till November 17, 2017, for trial.