Nigerian actress jailed six months for spraying new naira notes

Actress Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin was found guilty and sentenced to six months in prison on Thursday, February 1, 2024, by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, for treading on and spraying the new naira notes during a social event in Lagos State.

On February 13, 2023, she was first charged with two counts by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). She entered a plea of “not guilty” to both counts.

On February 15, 2023, she was subsequently given bail.

One of the charges reads: “That you, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, on January 28 2023, at Monarch Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, whilst dancing during a social occasion, tampered with the sum of N100,000 (one hundred thousand naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same in the said occasion and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”

Omoseyin, however, altered her plea from “not guilty” to “guilty” at the reopened court on Thursday due to the overwhelming body of evidence against her.

After she entered her “guilty plea,” Z.B. Atiku, the prosecution’s attorney, invited EFCC agent Abubakar Mohammed Marafa to review the case’s details.

Marafa recalled: “The defendant was arrested by officers of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, on February 1, 2023, and was handed over to the Commission on February 2, 2023, for further investigation.”

The defendant claimed to have sprayed N200 and N100 naira notes on January 28, 2023, during a friend’s wedding, but he said that her statement was taken cautiously.

“The defendant was processed, and the videos of where she sprayed the money was found on her phone. Also, further investigations were carried out and the management of the event centre was invited. They also brought in the video footage of the said event,” he said.

The prosecution’s attorney then moved to have the ICPC letter and other supporting materials, such as the defendant’s extrajudicial statement, a forensic report on her phone, a CD with videos of her dousing the naira note, a flash drive from the event center, and the statement of the center’s representative, tendered in evidence.

Justice Aneke found the defendant guilty of the charges against her after admitting them as exhibits.

The defense counsel, Afuye Adegbola, pleaded for leniency, saying, “She’s a first-time offender; she is a mother of one; she is remorseful and pleads for mercy.”

On behalf of the guilty, he further pleaded for a non-custodial punishment.

Judge Aneke delivered the verdict, sentencing the defendant to six months in prison, starting on Thursday, with the option to pay a fine of N300,000 (three hundred thousand Naira only) into the federation’s consolidated revenue account.

Omoseyin received her jail sentence when she was apprehended by ICPC agents on Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, Lagos, following the internet release of a video showing her stepping on and spray-painting the recently revised Naira notes at a party. She was also seen flashing wads of the new naira notes in the viral video.

She told the commission that she did not know the person who handed her the money and that she got the fresh naira notes from her supporters at the celebration.

At the time of her arrest, a Range Rover was among the items found on her.

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