The Imo State Police
Command on Friday arraigned 10 persons before a magistrate’s court in Owerri on
a charge of hawking and selling naira notes.
Parading the suspects
before the arraignment, the state’s Commissioner of Police, Dasuki Galadanchi,
said that the suspects were arrested in Owerri on September 13 during a joint
operation by the police, Department of State Services and the Central Bank of
Nigeria.
The commissioner gave the
names of the suspects as including Udeze Kelechukwu, Onyeanusi Clement, Amakuru
Mariam, Chinwendu Obi, Chibuzor Uzogu, Ann Ibekwe, Davis Iwuji,Obinna Johna and
Solomon Dinyelu.
Galadanchi disclosed that
N5,565,670,00 of various denominations was recovered from the suspects.
The police boss said that
the arrest and arraignment were in conformity with CBN Act, Section 20 and 21,
which he said made it a punishable offence for anybody to hawk, sell or
otherwise trade in the naira notes, coins or any other note issued by the bank.
He said, “On September 13,
Imo State Police Command and the Department of the Security Services in
collaboration with Central Bank of Nigeria carried out a sting operation, aimed
at forestalling illicit sale of the country’s currency notes, the naira.
“Ten suspects comprising
men and women were arrested along Douglas Road, Owerri during a raid supervised
by the commissioner of police.
“A total sum of
N5,565,670,00 consisting of various denominations was recovered from the
suspects.
“The police, DSS and the
CBN will continue this clampdown on the perpetrators of this offence which is
punishable under the CBN Act 2007, stipulating a jail term not less than six
months or to a fine not less than N50,000 or both.
“For the avoidance of
doubt, acts of spraying naira notes at events, soiling, writing on them,
squeezing them as well as hawking and selling of the country’s currency notes
are abuse of the naira and are punishable under the law.”
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