The Federal High Court sitting in Lagos has sentenced two persons to six months’ imprisonment each for unlawfully trading and hawking naira notes.
The convicts, Mutairu Omowunmi Tawa and Faith Chukwujeku, were prosecuted by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission after being separately charged with offences relating to illegal dealings in the Nigerian currency.
Justice A. Aluko, who presided over the cases at the Federal High Court, Ikoyi, handed down the sentences on Tuesday after both defendants pleaded guilty to the charges.
The EFCC disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
Tawa was accused of trading N850,000 at the Salamagic Event Centre, Onikan, Lagos, on July 25, 2026, contrary to provisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act.
Chukwujeku, on the other hand, was charged with hawking N1.3m in N200 denominations in Lagos on the same date.
The charges were read to the defendants separately, after which they pleaded guilty.
Following their pleas, the prosecution counsel, Fanen Anum, reviewed the facts of the cases before the court and urged the judge to convict and sentence the defendants in accordance with the law.
Anum also asked the court to order the forfeiture of the cash recovered from the convicts, describing it as the instrument used to commit the offences.
Delivering judgment, Justice Aluko found both defendants guilty and sentenced each of them to six months in prison.
The judge, however, gave each convict the option of paying a N50,000 fine in lieu of imprisonment.
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Justice Aluko further ordered the forfeiture of the cash admitted as Exhibit C to the Federal Government, having found it to be the instrument used in committing the offences.
The cases stemmed from the alleged illegal trading and hawking of a combined N2.15m in naira notes in Lagos on July 25, 2026.
