The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has arrested a woman, Omoseyin Esther, with the Twitter handle Simisola of Lala for offering new naira notes for sale on social media.
The arrest was a result of intelligence received which led the ICPC operatives to seek out and promptly arrest the suspect.
Esther, a social media “serial entrepreneur” who deals in skincare, sales of fuel, facilitation of foreign travels through visa acquisitions, and other businesses, seized the opportunity of the scarcity of the new naira notes to openly market the new notes.
According to the spokesperson, ICPC, Azuka Ogugua, “It is believed she is in collusion with key elements in the financial services sector diverting the newly released notes away from banking halls and payment channels into a “black market.”
Ogugua said the suspect is currently in ICPC detention and is helping the Commission with its findings on the criminal trading of the naira and the attendant scarcity and negative economic outcomes being caused by the action.
“The action is in furtherance of the collaboration between CBN ICPC and EFCC in implementing the new cashless policy and naira redesign”, she said.
