Police, DSS Nab 13 Women In Port Harcourt Over Sale Of Naira Notes

Men of the Nigeria Police and Department of State Services (DSS), in a sting operation involving officials of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday, December 13, 2017, in different parts of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, arrested 13 women for engaging in hawking of Naira notes.
Briefing newsmen, the Police Public Relations Officer, the State Police Command, Deputy Superintendent of Police, Nnamdi Omoni said the sting operation, which was carried out in line with the provisions of Sections 20 and 21 of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Act (2007), was aimed at checking illicit sale of the Naira notes.
He disclosed that the sum of N2,937,430 consisting of various denominations were recovered from the suspects.
Section 20 (4) of the CBN Act (2007) makes it an offence punishable by a term of imprisonment not less than 5 years for any person to falsify, make or counterfeit any Bank note or coin issued by the Bank which is a legal tender in Nigeria while Section 21(1), makes it an offence punishable for any person to hawk, sell, or trade in the Naira notes, coins or any other note issued by the Bank.
The office is punishable under the extant CBN Act by a jail term of not less than six months or a fine of not less than N 50,000 or both.
Omoni said the 13 suspects currently being held at the State CID, are helping with investigations, added that those found culpable would be charged to court.
Investigations, he said, had already commenced to ascertain the sources of the new Naira notes.
Omoni maintained that the operation would be a continuous exercise by the relevant security agencies to clamping down on persons illegally trading in the nation’s legal tender,
“The acts of spraying the naira notes at occasions, soiling and writing on them, mutilation, squeezing, as well as hawking and selling the Naira notes, are forms of abuses of the Naira as such should be discouraged by all,” he explained.
Omoni therefore urged Nigerians to respect the Naira note in all ramifications as it remained one of the symbols of the country’s national identity.