Police operatives serving in Igbo-Eze South Division of Enugu State Police Command have arrested one Joseph Chinenye aged 39 and Onyeka Kenneth Ezeja aged 29, both males and of Iheakpu-Awka in Igbo-Eze South LGA and Onicha Enugu-Ezike in Igbo-Eze North LGA respectively, for being in possession of suspected counterfeited 180 pieces of the newly redesigned N1,000 banknotes.
A statement by the spokesman of the Enugu State Police Command, Daniel Ndukwe, disclosed that preliminary investigation showed, among other things, that the banknotes, were in three separate batches.
Ndukwe said the notes bear same serial numbers of A/34:282656, A/46:578759 and 8/93:852942, adding that the suspects claimed to have procured the counterfeited new Naira notes from an unidentified woman in Benin City, Edo State.
“In addition, 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 investigation into the case by the State CID Enugu.
“Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police, CP Ahmed Ammani, has reassured the commitment of the Police to fish out and bring to book, criminal elements hellbent on perpetrating such acts of economic sabotage.
“He, therefore, urge all and sundry to support the Police in this quest, while being vigilant and wary of who or how they obtain and carry out transactions with Naira notes, especially the new ones,” the PPRO stated.
