ICPC Arrests Twitter User Selling New Naira Notes

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offenses Commission on Tuesday arrested an Abuja-based Twitter user, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, who goes by the name @SimisolaGold and Twitter name Simisola or Lala, for offering new naira notes on social media, The PUNCH reports . .

Our correspondent understood that while Omoseyin would not name any other members of the syndicate yet, she was cooperating with the investigation.

The arrest was the result of intelligence received that led ICPC officials to track down and immediately arrest the suspect.

The spokesperson for the anti-graft agency, Ms. Azuka Ogugua, made this known in a statement obtained by our correspondent on Wednesday evening.

Ms Ogugua said, “Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, a social media ‘serial entrepreneur’, who is involved in skin care, fuel sales, facilitating foreign travel through visa acquisitions and other businesses, seized the opportunity of the scarcity of the new naira banknotes to openly market the new banknotes.

“It is believed to be colluding with key elements in the financial services industry to divert the newly released banknotes away from banking halls and payment channels into a ‘black market’.”

Ogugua further noted that Omoseyin is currently in ICPC detention, helping the commission with its findings on the naira criminal trade and the associated scarcity and negative economic outcomes caused by the action.

The anti-graft agency noted that the move promotes cooperation between the Central Bank of Nigeria, the ICPC and its sister anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in implementing the new cashless policy and redesign of naira.