Security & Crime
Nigerian actress sentenced to six months in jail for distributing 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.
“That on the 28th day of January 2023, at Monarch Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, while dancing during a social occasion, you, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, 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.” This is one of the charges.
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 go over the case’s details.
According to Marafa, the defendant was taken into custody on February 1, 2023, by officers of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and on February 2, 2023, the defendant was turned over to the Commission for additional 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.
“After the defendant was processed, her phone contained recordings showing where she sprayed the money. In addition, more research was done and the event center’s administration was contacted. They also brought in the event’s video footage, he remarked.
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 centre, and the statement of the center’s representative, tendered in evidence.
Judge Aneke found the defendant guilty of the charges against him after admitting them as exhibits.
Afuye Adegbola, the defence attorney, begged for mercy, stating that the client was a first-time offender, a mother of one, and that she was repentant.
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 stated to the commission that she did not know the individual 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.