The Nigeria Police has arrested six suspected cybercrime suspects for allegedly hacking into the telecom systems of a Nigerian telecommunications company and diverting airtime and mobile data valued at approximately ₦7.7 billion.
The arrests were confirmed on Wednesday in a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, ACP Olumuyiwa Adejobi.
According to him, the suspects unlawfully accessed the core infrastructure of the telecom firm to perpetrate the large-scale fraud.
The police dentified the suspects as Ahmad Bala, Karibu Mohammed Shehu, Umar Habib, Obinna Ananaba, Ibrahim Shehu, and Masa’ud Sa’ad.
The FPRO disclosed that operatives recovered significant assets from the suspects during coordinated raids, including two mini plazas converted to cybercrime hubs, multiple retail outlets, more than 400 laptops, over 1,000 mobile phones, and a Toyota vehicle believed to have been used for the operation.
He added that a substantial sum of money linked to the illegal activities was traced to the suspects’ bank accounts, further strengthening the case against them.
“The syndicate was responsible for the illegal diversion of a telecommunications company’s airtime and data resources, resulting in an estimated financial loss exceeding ₦7.7 billion,” the statement said.
He explained that the breakthrough followed a formal petition submitted by the affected telecommunications company, which reported suspicious and unauthorised transactions within its billing and payment systems.
“Subsequent investigations revealed that the cybercriminals had compromised internal staff login credentials, enabling them to gain unlawful access to sensitive core systems and manipulate airtime and data allocations.
“Following weeks of intelligence gathering and surveillance, police operatives carried out coordinated enforcement operations in October 2025 across Kano and Katsina states, with a follow-up arrest later made in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT),” he said.
The police noted that investigations are on-going to identify additional members of the syndicate and determine whether insiders within the telecom firm were involved in the breach.
“The suspects will be charged to court upon the conclusion of investigations,” the statement added.
