A Nairobi court has directed that the sensational allegations of hacking of safaricom network that caused an eight hour countrywide clampdown be investigated by the Directorate of Criminal Investigation at Central police station,Nairobi county.
Milimani chief magistrate Francis Andayi gave the direction after reading the written confession claims by Mohammed Sani alias Dr Mustafa who alleged that he was privy to the hacking that was done at cell in Industrial area prison where he is held for an offence of being in possession of over $600 million (Sh112 billion) in fake currency.
Dr Mustafa, from Niger, shocked a Nairobi court on Monday when he came for the mention of his case with the sensational claims that the recent Safaricom network outage that triggered panic across the country was planned and executed from his cell at Industrial Area Prison in Nairobi county.
The magistrate had ordered the sani to write down the claims after he noted that the claims he was making before the court could not be be taken lightly. ”The allegations are weighty issues that need proper investigation. It would require that the magistrate come to prison to verify them or appoint a court assistant to help you put everything on record,” said Mr Andayi.
Sani’s lawyer Stephen Kimanthi who tabled in court the written allegations as earlier directed asked the court to have the same documents remained sealed to protect some of the witnesses his client has referred to for purpose of their security before and during the investigations.
The magistrate, however, said the allegations made by the accused doesn’t relate to the matter pending in court and therefore he said that the documents should be transmitted to DCI Central police station for him to conducted investigations into the claims.
Andayi also said that if the officer will require the accused persons from industrial area prison he should be availed to him. Sani who is a Western Africa had claimed that the outage was part of the operations of a mobile phone hacking cartel involving hard-core prisoners, rogue police officers and prison warders operating behind prison cells.
“I know everything that happened the day Safaricom shut down; we did it in my prison cell. I have all the evidence and people in prison who are willing to come out as witnesses to support my claims so that they are not seen as baseless allegations,” Sani claimed on Monday .
The accused also said police officers smuggled into his cell two laptops, which he used to hack into systems. According to Sani he claims that the cartel has been operating behind prison walls until a few days ago when a deal went sour and he decided to make everything public.
The confession of the sensational claims surprised members of the public who were in court on Monday including the magistrate who listened keenly Sani described how he was allowed access to a mobile phone and laptops in jail.
The detained explanation by the remandee of the hacking of the Safaricom network on April 24 left no doubt that it must have been done by techsavvy persons hidden in the least expected place. Sani claimed that in the one and a half years he has been in remand after High court justice Luka Kimaru rejected his application to be released on bail saying that if he was released he would sabotage the most of Africa Continent countries economy said that they managed to tap, siphon and share Sh 2.5 million with police officers who are part of the deal.
The accused further said that the police who were involved in the deal offered to protect the hackers from being known. Sani told the court that his threat to disclose what has been happening behind bars landed him in trouble with prison authorities saying that the prison officers have been subjecting him to inhuman treatment, including stripping him naked, forcing him to sleep on wet floors and flogging.
“When the police realised I had no more money to pay them for protection, they started harassing me and subjecting me to inhuman treatment. This was what caused me to go public and tell the court what was really happening in my room,” he said.
Sani was charged in January 2016 alongside Cameroonian Ousman Ibrahim Bako with being in possession of papers intended to resemble and pass as US dollar currency and Euro currency notes.
