Actress Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, better known as Simisola Gold, has been sentenced to six months imprisonment for spraying and stepping on the new naira notes at a social event in Lagos State.
Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, convicted and made the sentencing on Thursday.
Recall that the 32-year-old was arrested by operatives of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Fraud Related Offences Commission (ICPC) early in February after videos of her spraying and stepping on the newly redesigned naira notes at a party surfaced online.
She was first arraigned on February 13, 2023, by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on two-count charges, to which she pleaded “not guilty.”
She was subsequently granted bail on February 15, 2023.
Actress Simisola Gold remanded in Kirikiri for trampling on new naira notes
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.
