THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has launched a special task force in all its zonal commands to enforce laws against dollarization of the economy and currency mutilation.
The task force, inaugurated by the commission’s chairman, Ola Olukoyede, was created to protect the economy from abuses, leakages, and distortions.
This was disclosed in a statement issued on Wednesday, February 7, by the EFCC’s head of media and publicity, Dele Oyewale.
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Oyewale said the commission had already arrested some people issuing invoices in dollars and mutilating the naira in Lagos and River states.
He added that the commission invited proprietors of private universities and other institutions of higher learning who charge fees in dollars.
He noted that the EFCC was committed to enforcing all laws for the reflation and stimulation of the economy.
Last week, a Federal High Court in Lagos sentenced a Nigerian actress, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, to six months imprisonment for spraying and stepping on naira notes at a social event in the state.
In a statement issued by the EFCC on Thursday, February 1, the actress was first arraigned on February 13, 2023, by its Lagos zonal command on a two-count charge to which she pleaded not guilty.
The actress was first taken into custody after a video of her spraying and stepping on the newly redesigned naira notes at a party circulated online.
She was also seen flaunting wads of the new naira notes in the video. She had claimed that she received the naira notes from her fans at the party and did not know the people who gave her the money.
A Range Rover and iPhone mobile devices were recovered from her during her arrest.
The ICIR also reported that the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) approach to foreign exchange management had been questioned as the naira continued to fall against the US dollar.
The downward trajectory of the naira has been a recurring incidence since President Bola Tinubu’s administration introduced the single exchange rate window.
Tinubu has made the unification of exchange rates a key policy of his administration in currency management.
However, the unification of exchange rates has failed to solve Nigeria’s currency problems, as economy watchers want the CBN to be clear in its policy directive and address structural defects in the economy.
A reporter with the ICIR
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