Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, has sentenced Aniogor Godswill Obialuju and his company, ICE BY CW, to five years imprisonment for rejecting Naira as a legal tender.
The businessman and his company were put on trial on Thursday on a two-count charge, highlighting the refusal to receive the Naira as legal tender.
According to a statement on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC’s) official X handle, the defendant pleaded “guilty” to the charges for which the prosecution counsel, C.C. Okezie urged the court to convict the businessman as charged after he had tabled evidence showing “the payment receipt of the bracelet dated December 10, 2024, the defendant’s statement dated December 27, 2024 and the Diamond bracelet.”
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The first count reads, “That you, ICE BY CW and Aniogor Godswill Obiajulu, on the 10th day of December, 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, refused to accept Naira (Nigeria’s legal tender) by accepting the sum of $10,000 (Ten Thousand US Dollars) as a means of payment for the purchase of one diamond Clover bracelet and you thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under Section 20(1) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007.”
The second count reads, “That you, ICE BY CW and Aniogor Godswill Obiajulu, on the 10th day of December, 2024 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honorable Court, directly retained the total sum of $10,000 (Ten Thousand US Dollars), which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of the proceeds of your unlawful activity to wit: pricing and accepting USD as a means of payment for goods and services and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022 and punishable under Section 18 (3) of the same Act.”
Justice Aluko found the defendants guilty of the first and second count and sentenced them to “six months imprisonment each, with an option of fine in the sum of N50,000 (Fifty Thousand Naira).”
On the second count charge, the Judge sentenced the second defendant to four years imprisonment with “an option of fine in the sum of N1,000,000.00 (One Million Naira), which was also pronounced on the first defendant.” Both defendants were imprisoned for violating the Money Laundering Act by demanding and accepting U.S. dollars as a means of payment for goods and services.
Following this event, the Diamond Clover bracelet was “ordered forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.”
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