Simi Gold, a Nigerian actress whose real name is Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin, has been sentenced to six months in prison for spraying and stepping on Nigerian currency during a friend's wedding in Lagos State.
This judgment was delivered by Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos on February 1, 2024. Omoseyin was initially charged by the Lagos Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on February 13, 2023, and pleaded not guilty, after which she was granted bail with conditions.
One of the charges stated that she tampered with N100,000 issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying it during a social event at the Monarch Event Centre in Lekki, Lagos on January 28, 2023. However, at the recent court hearing, Omoseyin changed her plea to guilty due to the overwhelming evidence against her.
The prosecution counsel, Z.B. Atiku, called upon Abubakar Mohammed Marafa, an EFCC operative, to provide a review of the facts of the case.
Marafa stated that the defendant was arrested by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) on February 1, 2023, and subsequently handed over to the EFCC for further investigation on February 2, 2023.
According to him, the defendant’s statement was taken under caution, where she stated that she attended a friend’s wedding on January 28, 2023, and that she sprayed N200 and N100 Naira notes on the occasion.
“The defendant was processed and the videos of where she sprayed the money was found on her phone. Also, further investigations were carried out and the management of the event centre was invited. They also brought in the video footage of the said event.”
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, forensic report of her phone, a CD of videos showing her spraying the naira note, a flash drive from the event centre together with the statement of the representative of the centre.
Justice Aneke accepted them as evidence and found the defendant guilty of the charges.
The defense attorney, Afuye Adegbola, requested leniency, citing that she is a first-time offender, a mother, and expresses remorse and a plea for mercy. He further requested a non-custodial sentence on behalf of the convict.
In delivering the verdict, Justice Aneke sentenced the defendant to six months in prison, starting from Thursday, with the option to pay a fine of N300,000 (Three Hundred Thousand Naira) into the consolidated revenue account of the federation. Omoseyin's path to prison began when she was apprehended by ICPC agents on Awolowo Road in Ikoyi, Lagos, after a video surfaced online showing her spraying and stepping on the newly redesigned Naira notes at a party.
The video also showed her displaying stacks of the new Naira notes. In her statement to the Commission, she claimed that she received the new Naira notes from her fans at the party and that she did not know the individuals who gave her the money.
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