Naira Marley arrest: Simi breaks silence

Nigerian songstress, Simi has always expressed her displeasure for cybercrime. Months back, the singer urged internet fraudsters not to buy her music.

When Naira Marley started his social media campaign in support of cybercrime, Simi was quick to criticize him.

Just before his arrest, Naira Marley had revealed that Simi snubbed him at an event.

When Simi was asked to share her opinion about Naira Marley’s arrest on a recent radio show, she said: ”To be honest with you, I have zero issues with Naira Marley, I don’t have anything against him, he is not my enemy. We are not friends, we are not enemies. I saw him coming, we did not make eyes contacts, he did not talk to me, I did not talk to him. It is funny because he didn’t do anything to me, he did not directly disrespect me, he is not the first person that would say what he is saying.

“I’m not a stupid person; I’m not going to antagonize you because I’m not dumb. I like to mind my business. Probably he saw something and said something else. But he never spoke to me, he didn’t approach me and I saw that and I said whatever makes you happy. And for me, I’m a big picture person, I look at the big picture and if you are not in the picture, I’m not going to stress myself”, she revealed.

During a question and session Simi had with her fans on Wednesday, 22nd of May 2019, she was asked If she is happy about Naira Marley’s arrest, she said: “No”.

In April, during an Instagram live session, Naira Marley urged Nigerians to pray for internet fraudsters (Yahoo boys) “as they are crucial to the circulation of money in the economy.”

In the suit before the court, EFCC is using section 33 (2) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act.

The charges against the singer read in part: “That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley, and Raze (still at large), on or about the 11th day of December 2018, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, conspired amongst yourselves to use Access card 42658840359191132 issued to persons other than you in a bid to obtain gain and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 27(1)(b) of the Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015 and punishable under Section 33(2) of the Same Act.

“That you, Azeez Adeshina Fashola, aka Naira Marley, and Raze (still at large), on or about the 10th day of May 2019, within the jurisdiction of this honorable court, with intent to defraud possessed, counterfeit card 4921819410257431 issued to Timea Fedorne Tatar and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 33(9) of Cyber Crimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc) Act 2015.”