VDM paid 20 million naira to gain access to a WhatsApp group chat of Iyabo Ojo, Samclef, Tonto Dike, Aloma DMW etc. he believes the group holds answers to lots of question on “how Mohbad died and who killed him”, VDM testimony leads to the irresistible conclusion that he hacked into the WhatsApp group (we understand that’s the crime of unauthorized access punishable under section 6 of the cybercrime Act). But our focus is “whether the evidence of the content of the WhatsApp chat can be admissible in court to prove a case against the killers of Mohbad”.

Whatever evidence VDM extracts from the WhatsApp group will in law be regarded as “illegally obtained evidence” and is generally admissible under sections 14 and 15 of the Evidence Act but the court may reject it where the Court is of the view that that the desirability of admitting the evidence is out-weighted by the undesirability of admitting the evidence obtained in such an illegal manner. So what the court will look at to either accept or reject the hacked WhatsApp details are:

1. The probative value of the WhatsApp chat
2. The importance of the chat
3. The court will look at the nature of the case (Mohbad’s case is very serious so the WhatsApp chat will likely fly in court)
4. The gravity of the illegality (in this case it’s big sha)
5. The difficulty in obtaining the evidence without illegality (obtaining such WhatsApp chat is very difficult)
6. Whether the hack was deliberate etc.

However the WhatsApp chat is relevant to the case of the death of Mohbad and is likely to be admitted in evidence, despite that the mode of obtaining it was illegal