A Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos has sentenced Nollywood actress, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin a.k.a Simisola Gold, to six months imprisonment for spraying and stepping on the new naira notes in Lagos state.
CorrectNG recalls that the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, (ICPC) arrested her in February 2023.
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke convicted her on Thursday, February 1, 2024, and handed down the sentence on two-count charges, which she earlier pleaded not guilty to.
Simisola was first arraigned on February 13, 2023, by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.
The charge read; “That you, Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, on the 28th day of January 2023, at Monarch Event Centre, Lekki, Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, whilst dancing during a social occasion, tampered with the sum of N100,000 (one hundred thousand naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same in the said occasion and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act, 2007.”
At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Omoseyin, however, changed her not guilty plea to guilty, in view of the overwhelming evidence against her.
The prosecution counsel, Z.B. Atiku applied to tender, in evidence, the letter from the ICPC and other accompanying documents, including the extra-judicial statement of the defendant, a forensic report of her phone, a CD of videos showing her spraying the naira note, a flash drive from the event centre, and the statement of the representative of the centre.
Justice Aneke admitted them as exhibits and convicted the defendant, as charged.
The defence counsel, Afuye Adegbola, pleaded for leniency, and also prayed the court for a non-custodial sentence on behalf of the convict.
Adegbola said; “She’s a first-time offender; she is a mother of one; she is remorseful and pleads for mercy.”
Delivering judgement, Justice Aneke sentenced the defendant to six months imprisonment, with an option of a N300,000 fine.
