THE Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) said it arrested a woman, Omoseyin Oluwadarasimi Esther, with the Twitter handle @SimisolaGold, offering new naira notes for sale on social media.
According to the ICPC, intelligence reports prompted its operatives to seek out and arrest the suspect on Wednesday, February 1.
This was disclosed in a statement by the spokesperson of ICPC Azuka Ogugua.
The statement partly reads, “Oluwadarasimi Emma, a social media “serial entrepreneur” who deals in skincare, sales of fuel, facilitation of foreign travels through visa acquisitions, and other businesses, seized the opportunity of the scarcity of the new naira notes to openly market the new notes.
Photo credit: ICPC
“It is believed she is in collusion with key elements in the financial services sector, diverting the newly released notes away from banking halls and payment channels into a “black market,” the ICPC said.
The anti-corruption agency said Oluwadarasimi is currently in detention and is helping the Commission with its findings on the criminal trading of the naira and the attendant scarcity and adverse economic outcomes caused by the action.
The ICPC added that its action is in furtherance of the collaboration between it, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in implementing the new cashless policy and naira redesign.
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