A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has given Nollywood actress, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, also known as Simisola Gold, a six-month prison term for stepping on and spraying the new naira notes in Lagos state.
Recall that she was taken into custody by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in February 2023. Read here.
On Thursday, February 1, 2024, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke found her guilty of the two counts against which she had earlier entered a not guilty plea.
The Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) initially charged Simisola on February 13, 2023.
The charge read; “That you, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, on the 28th day of January 2023, at Monarch Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, whilst dancing during a social occasion, tampered with the sum of N100,000 (one hundred thousand naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same in the said occasion and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”
However, in light of the overwhelming evidence against her, Omoseyin altered her not guilty plea to guilty during the hearing that was resumed on Thursday.
Z.B. Atiku, the prosecution’s attorney, requested to tender the ICPC letter and other supporting materials as evidence. These included the defendant’s extrajudicial statement, a forensic report from her phone, a CD with videos of her spraying the naira note, a flash drive from the event centre, and the statement from the center’s representative.
Judge Aneke found the defendant guilty of the charges against the defendant after admitting them as exhibits.
Afuye Adegbola, the defendant’s defence attorney, begged the court for mercy and a non-custodial sentence on the defendant’s behalf.
Adegbola said; “She’s a first-time offender; she is a mother of one; she is remorseful and pleads for mercy.”
Judge Aneke handed down the punishment, which included a N300,000 fine in addition to six months in prison.
