A Lagos-based socialite and actress, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin has been convicted and sentenced, to six months imprisonment for spraying and abusing new Naira notes at a social event in Lagos.
The defendant was nabbed by operatives 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 investigation.
On Thursday, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos handed down the sentence on Omoseyin who pleaded guilty to two-count charges, contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007″, which she had earlier pleaded not guilty to.
The convict, according to a by the Lagos Zonal Command of Economic And Financial Crimes Commission was first arraigned February 13, 2023 and was subsequently granted bail on February 15, 2023.
Justice Aneke, during resumed hearing,.however given an option of N300,000 (Three Hundred Thousand Naira only) fine which would be paid into the consolidated revenue account of the federation.
The prosecution Z.B. Atiku, called Abubakar Mohammed Marafa, who told the Court that the defendant’s statement was taken under caution. She stated that she attended a friend’s wedding on January 28, 2023, and that she sprayed wades of N200 and N100 Naira notes on the occasion.
“The defendant was processed and the videos of where she sprayed the money was found on her phone, according to him, 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.”
Marafa, who is operative of the EFCC, while reviewing the facts of the case, had applied to tender, in evidence, the letter from the ICPC and other accompanying documents, including the extra-judicial statement of the defendant.
The forensic report of her phone, a CD of videos showing her spraying the naira note, a flash drive from the event centre together with the statement of the representative of the centre.
The evidences were admitted them as exhibits and convicted the defendant, as charged, which Justice Aneke admitted.
The defence 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”.
The prosecution Counsel further pleaded for a non-custodial sentence on behalf of the convict.
One of the court reads: “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.”
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