POLICE ARREST TWO IN ENUGU FOR COUNTERFEITING NEW NAIRA NOTES

REPORTER: CHUKWUBUIKE MADU

Police Operatives serving in Igbo-Eze South Division of Enugu State Command have arrested two persons for possessing and selling fake redesigned 180 pieces of N1,000 notes,

They are 39 year old Joseph Chinenye and 29 Onyeka Kenneth Ezeja.

A statement by the Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mr. Daniel Ndukwe Ekea, said that the arrest followed credible intelligence.

According to the police Spokesman, “Police Operatives on Thursday (02/02/2023) arrested one Joseph Chinenye aged 39 and Onyeka Kenneth Ezeja aged 29, both male and respectively of Iheakpu-Awka in Igbo-Eze South LGA and Onicha Enugu-Ezike in Igbo-Eze North LGA, in possession of suspected counterfeited one hundred and eighty (180) pieces of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN’s) newly redesigned one thousand naira (N1,000) notes, with face value of one hundred and eighty thousand naira (N180,000.00).”

The statement said that investigation revealed that the alleged fake notes had same serial numbers and the suspected had made efforts to sell them to a POS operator but failed.

The statement said that the suspects claimed to have got the counterfeit from a woman in Benin, Edo State.

“Preliminary investigation shows, among other things, that the notes, which are in three separate batches, bear the same serial numbers of A/34:282656, A/46:578759 and 8/93:852942.

“While the suspects claimed to have secured the counterfeited Naira notes from an unidentified woman in Benin, Edo State.

“In addition, they confessed to attempting to sell the notes to a POS operator, who rejected them, before the Operatives arrested them at a Filling Station in Ibagwa-Aka community of Igbo-Eze LGA, where they used the notes to purchase petrol,” the statement narrated.

It said that the two male suspects would be arraigned in court after conclusion of investigation into the case by the State CID.

The statement added that the “Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Ammani, fdc, has reassured the commitment of the Police to fish out and bring to book, criminal elements hellbent on perpetrating such acts of economic sabotage. He therefore, urges all and sundry to support the Police in this quest, while being vigilant and wary of who or how they obtain and carry out transactions with Naira notes, especially the new ones.”