Police arrest six over alleged ₦7.7bn telecom hacking and airtime diversion

Nigeria’s police say they have arrested six people accused of hacking into the systems of a telecommunications company and diverting airtime and mobile data valued at about ₦7.7bn.

The arrests were announced on Wednesday by the force spokesperson, Benjamin Hundeyin, who said the suspects unlawfully accessed the company’s core systems to carry out what he described as a sophisticated, cyber-enabled fraud.

Hundeyin identified the suspects as Ahmad Bala, Karibu Mohammed Shehu, Umar Habib, Obinna Ananaba, Ibrahim Shehu and Masa’ud Sa’ad. He said police operatives recovered two mini plazas, retail outlets containing more than 400 laptops and about 1,000 mobile phones, as well as a Toyota vehicle. A “substantial” sum of money was also traced to the suspects’ bank accounts, according to the police.

The case followed a petition from a Nigerian telecommunications company, which reported suspicious and unauthorised activities within its billing and payment infrastructure. Investigations by the National Cybercrime Centre revealed that internal staff login credentials had been compromised, allowing those behind the operation to gain illegal access to critical systems.

Police said coordinated enforcement operations were carried out in October 2025 in Kano and Katsina states, with a further arrest made in the federal capital territory. The suspects are expected to be charged to court at the conclusion of the investigation.

The inspector general of police, Kayode Egbetokun, commended officers involved in the operation, praising what the force described as their professionalism.