A Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital, has jailed three bureau de change operators for operating without a licence.
The convicts, Mustapha Idris, Hassan Bala, and Ajayi Ernest Isaac, are all from Chikanda in the Baruten Local Government Area of the state.
The trial judge, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola of the Federal High Court, convicted and sentenced the three bureau de change operators.
They were prosecuted by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, on separate charges.
The charge against Idris read: “That you, Mustapha Idris, sometime in July 2024, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, did carry on the business of other financial institutions, to wit: bureau de change, without a valid licence issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 57 (1) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 2020, and punishable under Section 57 (5) (b) of the same Act.”
Bala’s charge sheet read: “That you, Hassan Bala, sometime in July 2024, within the judicial division of the Federal High Court, were found to be carrying on the business of other financial institutions, to wit: bureau de change, without a valid licence issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 57 (1) and (2) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act, 2020, and punishable under Section 57 (5) (b) of the same Act.”
They all pleaded guilty when the charges were read to them. The prosecution counsel, Sesan Ola and Andrew Akoja, while reviewing the facts of the cases, called witnesses, tendered the extra-judicial statements of the defendants, and presented the different currencies recovered from them at the point of arrest. They urged the court to convict and sentence them as charged.
The judge convicted and sentenced Idris to 250 hours of community service without the option of a fine and ordered that the sum of CFA33,000 and N323,000 recovered from him at the point of arrest be forfeited to the Federal Government.
He sentenced Bala to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of N200,000 and also ordered that the sum of CFA677,500 and N881,900 recovered from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.
Isaac was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of N500,000. In addition, he forfeited the sum of $31 recovered from him to the Federal Government.