Nollywood actress Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, better known as Simisola Gold, who was arrested for spraying and stepping on the new Naira notes at a social event in Lagos State has been sentenced to six months imprisonment.
The Federal High Court judge, Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke on Thursday, February 1st, convicted and made the sentencing on Thursday.
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It would be recalled that the 32-year-old was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on two-count charges on a two-count charge, in which she pleaded not guilty.
One of the count reads,
“that you Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin on the 28th day of January, 2023 at Monarch event center, Lekki within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court whilst dancing during a social occasion tampered with the sum of N100, 000.00 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.”
The second reads,
“that you Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin on the 28th day of January, 2023 at Monarch event center, Lekki within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court whilst dancing during a social occasion tampered with the sum of N100, 000.00 issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by dancing on 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.”
She was subsequently granted bail on February 15, 2023. At the resumed hearing on Thursday, Omoseyin, however, changed her “not guilty” plea to “guilty” in view of the overwhelming evidence against her.
Following her “guilty plea”, the prosecution counsel, Z.B. Atiku called Abubakar Mohammed Marafa, an operative of the EFCC, to review the facts of the matter.
The prosecution counsel, thereafter, further 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, saying,
“She’s a first-time offender; she is a mother of one; she is remorseful and pleads for mercy.”
He further pleaded for a non-custodial sentence on behalf of the convict.
Delivering judgement, Justice Aneke sentenced the defendant to six months imprisonment, effective from Thursday, with an option of a N300,000 (three hundred thousand naira only) fine to be paid into the consolidated revenue account of the federation.
