The suspects were in possession of counterfeited 180 pieces of the Central Bank of Nigeria newly-redesigned N1,000 notes, with a face value of N180,000 (One hundred and eighty thousand naira).
This is contained in a statement issued and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria by the Command’s spokesman, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, on Friday in Enugu.
Ndukwe said the feat was achieved when police officers serving in the Igbo-Eze South Division of the Command acted on credible information on Feb. 2 at about 9:05p.m.
He said that the police officers arrested Joseph Chinenye, 39, and Onyeka Ezeja, 29, both male, and respectively of Iheakpu-Awka in the Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area and Onicha village in the Enugu-Ezike in Igbo-Eze North LGA.
“Preliminary investigation shows, among other things, that the naira notes, which are in three separate batches, bear the same serial numbers of A/34:282656, A/46:578759 and 8/93:852942.
“The suspects claimed to have secured the counterfeited naira notes from an unidentified woman in Benin City, Edo State.
“In addition, they confessed to attempting to sell the naira notes to a Point of Sale operator, who rejected them.
“They were, however, arrested by police operatives at a filling station in the Ibagwa-Aka community of Igbo-Eze South LGA, where they used the naira notes to purchase petrol,” he said.
Ndukwe said the duo would be arraigned in court upon consolidation and conclusion of investigation into the case by the State Criminal Investigation Department, Enugu.
He said the the state Commissioner of Police, Mr Ahmed Ammani, had reassured the commitment of the police to fish out and bring to book criminal elements hell-bent on perpetrating such acts of economic sabotage.
The police spokesman said that the commissioner also urged all and sundry to support the police in its quest to deal with criminality and criminal elements.
“I want the good people of Enugu State to be vigilant and wary of who or how they obtain and carry out transactions with naira notes, especially the new naira notes,” he added.
NAN
