Police Operatives serving in Igbo-Eze South Division of Enugu State Command, have arrested two suspects for allegedly possessing suspected counterfeit one hundred and eighty (180) pieces of the newly redesigned one thousand naira (N1,000) notes.
On Thursday, February 2, officers 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 for carrying counterfeit notes.
According to a statement issued by the state police command’s spokesperson, DSP Daniel Ndukwe, preliminary investigation shows 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 obtained the counterfeited Naira notes from an unidentified woman in Benin, Edo State.
“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 duo will be arraigned in court upon consolidation and conclusion of an investigation into the case by the State CID Enugu,” Ndukwe said
He stated that the state Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Ammani, has reaffirmed the Police’s determination to apprehend and prosecute criminal elements intent on committing such acts of economic sabotage.
As a result, he advised everyone to join the Police in their pursuit, while remaining watchful and aware of who or how they get and conduct transactions using Naira notes, particularly fresh ones.
