At least 3,234 persons were imprisoned for currency offences from 2018 to 2020, The PUNCH has learnt.
This is according to the Prison Admission by Type of Offences, Sex and Year data from the recent 2021 Women and Men in Nigeria Statistical Report by the National Bureau of Statistics.
A breakdown showed that a total of 1,437 persons were imprisoned for currency offences in 2018, with men being 1,317 and women 120.
In 2019, a total of 1,066 were imprisoned, with men being 992 and women 74.
The figure was further reduced in 2020 to a total of 731 persons, consisting of 688 men and 43 women.
Currency offences usually involve a breach of the Counterfeit Currency (Special Provisions) Act 1974 and the Central Bank Act 2007.
A major currency offence is the making of counterfeiting currency or having the materials needed to make a counterfeiting currency, with both offences punishable by life imprisonment.
According to the Counterfeit Currency (Special Provisions) Act 1974, “Any person who falsely makes or counterfeits any bank note or coin resembling any bank note or current coin which is legal tender in any country other than Nigeria, shall be guilty of an offence under this Act and on conviction thereof shall be sentenced to life imprisonment.’
It is also an offence to import and export, deal in, or possess any counterfeit currency.
Anyone who knowingly possesses counterfeit currency is liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding twenty-one years.
The Counterfeit Currency (Special Provisions) Act 1974 also states, “Any person found committing an offence under this Act may be immediately apprehended without a warrant by any person and forthwith taken before a police officer thereafter to be dealt with according to law.”
Also, the Federal High Court has exclusive jurisdiction to try offences created under this Act.
More offences are captured under the CBN Act 2007, which include defacing the legal tend and spraying the notes.
Section 21(3) of the CBN Act 2007 (As amended) stipulates that “spraying of, dancing or matching on the Naira or any note issued by the Bank during social occasions or otherwise howsoever shall constitute an abuse and defacing of the Naira or such note and shall be punishable under the law by fines or imprisonment or both.”
Earlier this year, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had said it would arraign an actress and cosmetologist, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, who was arrested by operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, for allegedly abusing the naira.
The 31-year-old was arrested after a video of her spraying and stepping on the newly redesigned naira notes at a party surfaced online.
This was as operatives of the Lagos zonal command of the EFCC commenced an investigation into the matter, noting that it was an offence contrary to Section 21 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007.
EFCC operatives also seized a Range Rover and iPhone belonging to the actress as items recovered from her.
Section 21 (1) of the CBN Act reads that “A person who tampers with a coin or note issued by the Bank is guilty of an offence and shall on conviction be liable to imprisonment for a term not less than six months or to a fine not less than N50,000 or to both such fine and imprisonment.”
A few days to February 14 this year, the CBN listed money bouquets as a form of naira abuse through a flier shared on its Twitter handle that listed forms of abusing the naira.
Alongside money bouquet, other forms of abuse listed by the CBN are spraying, selling, squeezing and defacing.
Section 21(4) states that “It shall also be an offence punishable under Sub-section (1) of this section for any person to hawk, sell or otherwise trade in the Naira notes, coins or any other note issued by the Bank.”
During the peak of the naira redesign policy of the CBN, the bank threatened to prosecute anyone caught selling or abusing the new Naira notes.
A statement issued read, “The Central Bank of Nigeria has observed, with grave concern, the activities of persons who sell the newly redesigned banknotes and those who flagrantly abuse the legal tender by hurling wads of Naira notes in the air and stamping on the currency at social functions.
“We wish to state unequivocally that, contrary to the practice of these unpatriotic persons, it is unlawful to sell the Naira, hurl (spray), or stamp on the currency under any circumstance whatsoever.”
The bank said it was partnering with the Nigeria Police, Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit to address the issue of the sale and abuse of new notes in the country.
The PUNCH recently reported that the CBN seized N365.24m counterfeit notes between 2016 and 2020.
The figures were collated from the CBN’s annual report for each year, available on its website.
The 2017 CBN annual report noted that the bank seized 77,576 pieces of counterfeit banknotes valued at N51.45m in 2016.
The 2018 report showed that N93.43m fake notes were seized in 2017 and N98.82m in 2018.
The 2020 annual report showed that N64.71m counterfeit notes were seized in 2019 and N56.83m in 2020.
The bank has maintained that N1000 and N500 notes have been the most counterfeited over the years.
In a circular to banks in January 2019, the CBN threatened to fine banks for paying fake notes through their automated teller machines.
It warned that each bank would be fined N1m per branch if found guilty of this crime.
