Justice Abimbola Awogboro of the Federal Excessive Court docket, Ilorin, has sentenced three males to varied jail phrases for being in possession of counterfeit naira notes.
The convicts, Olaitan Dina, a 46-year-old aluminium fabricator from Maraba in Ilorin; Opeyemi Jeremiah, a bakery employee from Oke-Ero Native Authorities Space of Kwara State; and Adebayo Mayowa Abiola from Osi in Ekiti State have been arrested by operatives of the Nigeria Safety and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and handed over to the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Financial and Monetary Crimes Fee (EFCC) for additional investigation.
Investigations confirmed that the notes discovered on the suspects have been pretend, with a number of bearing equivalent serial numbers. The defendants have been subsequently arraigned on separate prices and pleaded responsible to their respective offences.
One of many counts in opposition to Dina reads:
“That you just, Olaitan Dina, someday in July 2025, at Ilorin, throughout the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court docket, uttered twenty-one (21) items of ₦1,000 notes to 1 Abiola Adebayo, eleven of which bore the identical serial quantity Y/64 235922… which you knew to be counterfeit, and thereby dedicated an offence opposite to Part 5(1)(a) of the Counterfeit Foreign money (Particular Provisions) Act, 1983 and punishable underneath Part 5(1)(c) of the identical Act.”
Related prices have been introduced in opposition to Jeremiah and Abiola, who have been accused of possessing and aiding the circulation of counterfeit foreign money in contravention of the identical legislation.
Throughout the evaluate of details, EFCC counsel Aliyu Adebayo known as Detective Abdulhakeem Sani Umar, an operative of the Fee, who testified that the seized notes have been despatched to the EFCC headquarters in Abuja for forensic evaluation, which confirmed them to be pretend.
Adebayo additionally tendered the counterfeit notes and the defendants’ confessional statements as proof and urged the court docket to convict them accordingly.
In her judgment, Justice Awogboro held that the prosecution had proved its case past affordable doubt.
“The difficulty of naira counterfeiting is a severe crime in opposition to the legislation and the society. Many are into drug abuse, others in cybercrime, and now counterfeiting. The court docket should go a sentence that may function a deterrent,” she said.
Consequently, the decide sentenced Dina to 18 months imprisonment, whereas Jeremiah and Abiola every acquired 15 months imprisonment. All sentences are to run from October 15, 2025, with out an choice of advantageous.
The court docket additionally ordered that every one counterfeit notes recovered from the convicts be forfeited to the Federal Authorities of Nigeria.
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