State Security Service, DSS, agents have detained no fewer than 14 people for selling new naira notes in Kano State without a licence.
Following a tip-off from the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps and the Central Bank of Nigeria, the DSS agents stormed the new naira black market and apprehended the suspects.
The state Commandant of the NSCDC, Adamu Zakari, while parading the suspects at NSCDC state headquarters in Kano, explained that the DSS handed them over to them.
The illegal sale of new currency notes violates Section 20 of the CBN Act, which prohibits counterfeiting, hawking, selling, or otherwise trading in naira notes, coins, or any other note issued by the bank.
He said the suspects included Alhaji Ubandi Hotoro, 82, Haruna Yahaya, 42, Rabiu Ibrahim, 34, Ismaila Mohammad Umar, 20 and Nura Aminu, 45, Nasiru Adamu, 40 and Nazef Lawal, 20.
Others were Sulaiman Tijjani, 35, Mustapha Ismail Haruna, 47, Aminu Jibril, 23, Lawal Ibrahim, 40, Abubakar Jibril, 45, Abdullahi Hassan, 30 and Fatima Ibrahim, 30.
Zakari then promised that the NSCDC, DSS and CBN will continue to clamp down on perpetrators of the illegal act which is a punishable offence under the CBN Act.
According to him, “For the avoidance of doubt, the act of spraying the naira notes at occasions, soiling and writing on it, squeezing handling as well as counterfeiting the country currency note are abuse of the naira are punishable by the law.”
He added that,”As soon as investigation into the matter is completed, the suspects will be charged to court.”
One of the suspects, Alhaji Ubandi Hotoro, said nothing incriminating was found on him because he was at a place to settle a dispute between some suspects and security agents.
Another suspect confessed that they were forced to engage in the business just to make ends meet, adding that if they are let out of the hook, they will not go back to it.
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