New Naira: ICPC Comes Down Heavy On Sellers, Arrests Twitter User

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has apprehended an Abuja-based Twitter user, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, with the handle @SimisolaGold for offering to sell new naira notes on social media.

The arrest was made after the agency received intelligence report about the deed of the suspect.

Although, Omoseyin was yet to mention other members of the syndicate, she was cooperating with investigation.

Spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Azuka Ogugua revealed this in a statement on Wednesday.

According to Ogugua, “Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, 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.

“It is believed that 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 further revealed that the suspect who is currently in detention is helping the agency with its findings on the criminal trading of the naira and the attendant scarcity and negative economic outcomes being caused by the action.

The anti-graft agency noted that the action is in furtherance of the collaboration between the Central Bank of Nigeria, the ICPC, and its sister anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in implementing the new cashless policy and naira redesign.