The Bankers committee has said it is ready to engage the use of mobile courts to punish people who abuse the Naira in events and gatherings. NAN reports.
This was made known during a press conference held after the Bankers committee meeting in Lagos on Thursday.
Speaking to Newsmen, the Director, Corporate Communications Department, Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Isaac Okorafor, said that mobile courts would be used to enforce the law.
He explained that anyone found squeezing, hawking, spraying or trampling on Naira notes at any ceremony would be arrested and prosecuted at the mobile courts.
“We realised that it costs a lot of money to print the Nigerian naira notes;
“we also realised that the CBN Act, 2007 forbids any action by anybody either by spraying or squeezing or trampling upon it, writing on it, or hawking it” Mr Okoroafor said.
“That Act makes it punishable by six months’ imprisonment, or the offender pays a fine of N50,000 or both”
“And so, it is not only hawking it, but also if at a party, somebody dances upon the money or sprays it, that person automatically goes to jail from that reception. So, Nigerians should bear that in mind and we are serious about it” he added.
According to the report, Mr Okoroafor further noted that the CBN is working with the Ministry of Justice, the judiciary and the Nigeria Police Force to enforce the act.
“It is the duty of the law enforcement agencies to catch offenders and take them to court, and we have been collaborating with the Nigeria Police Force on this mobile court and that collaboration will be intensified” he said.
