Actress goes to prison for spraying, stepping on naira notes

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has sentenced an actress, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, to six months in jail.

The court presided over by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke handed down the jail term on her for stepping on and spraying new Naira notes at a social gathering in Lagos.
The report of her conviction was spotted by Nation Update on the X page of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) this Thursday.

The EFCC had to say: “She was first arraigned on February 13, 2023, by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on two-count charges, to which she pleaded “not guilty”.

Omoseyin was subsequently granted bail on February 15, 2023.

The anti graft agency’s statement reads partly: “That you, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, on the 28th day of January 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 N100,000.00 (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.”

At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Omoseyin changed her “not guilty” plea to “guilty” because of the overwhelming evidence against her.

Following her “guilty plea”, the prosecution counsel, Z.B. Atiku called Abubakar Mohammed Marafa, an operative of the EFCC to review the facts of the matter.

Marafa recalled that “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 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.”

Judge Aneke delivered the verdict, sentencing the defendant to six months in jail, starting on Thursday, with the option to pay a fine of N300,000.00 into the Federation’s Consolidated revenue account.