By CHIOMA IGBOKWE
A Yaba Chief Magistrate Court has issued a warrant of arrest on two Canadian nationals Kiranjot and Tara Matharoo, who are standing trial before it for allegedly jumping bail. The two sisters whose parents are Indians were dragged to court in a case of alleged threat to kidnap, cyber-stalking and blackmail, involving Nigeria billionaire and oil mogul, Femi Otedola, socialite Dapo Balogun and one Omoregie Ige, for failure to appear in court.
The court also ordered the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, to arrest two other persons, Alhaji Waheed Shobulo and Ade Oregbensa, who stood as sureties for the sisters after they were granted bail by the court, in December 2016.
It was gathered that the sisters who fled the country to Canada, after perfecting their bail conditions, were first arrested by police in a five star hotel, located at the Victoria Island Lagos, on December 9, 2016.
Police acted based on a petition by Otedola to the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, detailing how the sisters, who had a Nigerian collaborator, Babatunde Oyebade, were blackmailing him and his daughter and several innocent prominent Nigerians using a gossip website known as nijagistlive.com.
They were also said to have blackmailed Dapo Balogun and Omoregie Ige, through their gossip website and demanded the sum of N3.5million from Ige before pulling down the story from their website.
The IGP, was said to have directed his operatives at the Intelligence Response Team, IRT, to investigate the matter and the Nigerian collaborator, Oyebade, was first arrested, in Festac Town, Lagos. He allegedly told the police that he was contacted through mail by the Canadian sisters to design a website and they sent a taxi driver to give him an envelope containing N100, 000 with his phone number written.
Upon his arrest, Oyebade helped the police to trace the taxi driver, who led policemen to arrest a hotel receptionist at a hotel in Victoria Island, where he was handed the envelope.
The receptionist was arrested, and she took the operatives to the N178, 000 per night room of the Canadian sisters.
Police alleged that they found a laptop containing information indicating that the sisters operates and co-ordinate a syndicate which specialized in blackmailing wealthy Nigerians using the internet was recovered.
They were eventually docked on December 23, 2016, before Chief Magistrate A.O Ojo, of the Yaba Magistrate Court , on a four count charge of blackmail, threat to kidnap and cyber-stalking and a bail of N500,000 and two sureties each was granted to them, while the case was adjourned. It was later transferred to the Federal High Court Lagos for trial, where it was assigned to Justice Olatorungun.
Daily Sun learnt that their traveling passports was also surrendered to the police but the sisters, obtained a temporary traveling documents from the Canadian Embassy in Lagos and traveled back to their country.
Sources revealed that the Interpol section of the Nigeria Police Force is making moves to issue an international warrant of arrest against the suspects.
One of the count charges reads in parts; “that you Babatunde Oyebade, Kiranjot Matharoo , Tara Matharoo and others at large, on or about the 17th day of July, 2016, at the Ikoyi Lagos, in the Lagos Judicial Division, did conspire among yourselves and transmit offensive and injurious communication through computer network system known as ‘Nija gist live’ a website, owned by you which contained threats to kidnap one Omoregie Ige, f, or harm her and requested for payment of N3.5million from her for the removal of her name from the damaging and false communication which was published on the said network website and thereby committed and offence punishable under section 24(3)(a)(i) of the Cyber Crimes (prohibition and prevention) Act, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2015.”
