The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has announced that it arrested a woman, Omoseyin Oluwadarasimi Esther, amid anger among Nigerians over others who were seen at two different parties spraying bundles of the notes while others fight at bank Automatic Teller Machines, and many are made to pay huge commissions by Point of Sales (PoS) operators.
Omoseyin with the Twitter handle Simisola of Lala, offered new naira notes for sale on social media, while those at the parties in the two viral videos brazenly showed their faces. In one of the videos, one of the sprayers appeared to have an army escort.
According to statement by Mrs. Azuka Ogugua, the spokesperson of ICPC, the arrest was as a result of intelligence received which led the ICPC operatives to seek out and promptly arrest the suspect.
Omoseyin Oluwadarasimi Esther, 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. 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”
Oluwadarasimi is currently in ICPC detention and is helping the Commission with its findings on the criminal trading of the naira and the attendant scarcity and negative economic outcomes being caused by the action.
The action is in furtherance of the collaboration between CBN ICPC and EFCC in implementing the new cashless policy and naira redesign, the statement added.
