THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has listed money bouquets as a form of naira abuse.
The apex bank made this known via a flier that listed all forms of abuse of the naira on its Twitter handle on Friday, February 10.
Other forms of naira abuse as listed by the CBN are spraying, selling, squeezing and defacing.
The ICIR gathered that anyone convicted for tampering with a coin or note issued by the Bank is liable to N50,000 fine or imprisonment for a term not less than six months.
This is as according to Section 21 (1) of the CBN Act that reads “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.”
The CBN further urged citizens to report any form of naira abuse to the bank.
“It is your civic duty to protect the naira. Report naira abuse today,” the CBN stated.
Recall that the Operatives of the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), have commenced investigating an actress and cosmetologist Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, for allegedly tampering with the redesigned naira notes.
The actress was on Wednesday, February 1, arrested in Lagos by operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC), for offering new naira notes for sale on social media.
However, on Friday, February 3, the EFCC claimed that Omoseyin, was arrested after a video which showed her spraying and stepping on the newly redesigned naira notes at a party surfaced online.
Usman Mustapha is a solution journalist with International Centre for Investigative Reporting. You can easily reach him via: [email protected]. He tweets @UsmanMustapha_M