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Court Jails Man Four Years for Refusal to Accept Naira As Legal Tender

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Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court sitting in Ikoyi, Lagos, on Tuesday, April 15, 2025, convicted and sentenced one Uzondu Precious Chimaobi to four years imprisonment for his refusal to accept the Naira as a legal tender.

 

Chimaobi was arraigned by the Lagos Zonal Directorate 1 of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Awolowo Road, Ikoyi, Lagos, on February 5, 2025 on a two-count charge bordering on refusal to accept the Naira as a legal tender.

 

One of the counts reads: “That you, Precious Chimaobi Uzondu, on the 10th of December 2024, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, refused to accept Naira (Nigeria legal tender) by accepting the sum of $5700 ( Five Thousand Seven Hundred USD) as a means of payment for a purchase of a cartier diamond bracelet with serial number (12345678) and you, thereby , committed an offence contrary to Section 20 of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007.”

 

He initially pleaded not guilty to the charge, leading to his full trial.

 

Subsequently, the prosecution presented its first witness, PW1, Owolabi Oyarekhua Jude, an operative of the EFCC.

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Led in evidence by the prosecution counsel, H.U. Kofarnaisa, Jude told the court that “the Commission received intelligence on the activities of a jewelry company called Unlimited Jewellers Limited, “whose owner is one Uzondu Precious Chimaobi.

 

“The Company, which deals in jewelry at Atlantic Mall, Chevron Drive, Lekki, Lagos intentionally tags and sells its products in Dollars as against the CBN Act, 2007 ,which stipulates Naira as the only legal tender in Nigeria.”

 

Continuing, he added that “ Subsequently, a covert operation was carried out , where an undercover operative of the Commission disguised as a customer to purchase a Diamond Nail bracelet that was tagged $6000 and bought it for $5700.

 

“The company refused to receive Naira and demanded Dollars as a means of payment. The payment was made and receipt was issued in Dollars . The owner of the company was arrested and taken to the Commission’s office.”

 

However, at the resumed sitting on April 14, 2025, the defendant opted to change his “not guilty” plea to “guilty.

 

Consequent upon his guilty plea, Kofarnaisa, prayed the court to rely on the evidence earlier given by the investigating officer, and admit the same in convicting the defendant.

 

Kofarnaisa, thereafter, tendered the defendant’s statement and other evidence to further prove his guilt and they were admitted by the court.

 

Justice Owoeye then adjourned till Tuesday, April 15, 2025 for ruling.

 

Delivering judgment, they found the defendant guilty and gave him an option of fine of N50,000( Fifty Thousand Naira) on count one.

 

The Judge sentenced him to four years imprisonment, with an option of fine in the sum of N600,000 on count two.

 

His Cartier Diamond wristwatch was ordered forfeited to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

 

The convict bagged his imprisonment when he refused to accept Naira by accepting the sum of $5700 ( Five Thousand Seven Hundred USD) as a means of payment for a purchase of a cartier diamond bracelet. He was charged to court and convicted.

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None of Nigeria’s Presidents have Brigadier Generals as ADC, as the promotion of Tinubu’s ADC was shelved.

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None of Nigeria’s Presidents have Brigadier Generals as ADC, as the promotion of Tinubu’s ADC was shelved.”

The controversial plan to decorate Nurudeen Yusuf, aide-de-camp (ADC) to President Bola Tinubu, as a one-star general on Monday evening was shelved at the last minute after an intervention by two former chiefs of army staff.

Yusuf, who was only decorated as a colonel last January, was to be promoted to the rank of brigadier-general through “special presidential promotion”.

Under normal process, an officer has to be a colonel for at least four years after which he or she will attend the National Defence College (NDC) before they are considered for promotion.

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The approval to bypass the process was conveyed in a letter from the office of the national security adviser (NSA) to the Chief of army staff.

No brigadier has ever been ADC to the president of Nigeria, leading to further disquiet within the military establishment.

Ahead of the planned decoration on Monday, the minister of defence, Chris Musa — who is a retired general — and the chief of army staff, Waidi Shaibu, a lieutenant general, had cut short their visit to Lagos state and returned to the federal capital.

However, two highly respected former army chiefs eventually succeeded in persuading Tinubu to shelve the plan because of the dangers to the military establishment, TheCable learnt.

A presidential source told that the promotion is not going to happen “anytime soon”.

 

 

The cable

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Breaking:Former Chief Justice Of Nigeria Ibrahim Tanko Is Dead

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Former Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad (retd.), is dead.

A close source confirmed to SaharaReporters on Tuesday morning that the former head of Nigerian judiciary passed away at a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

“Ex-CJN Tanko Muhammad is dead. He passed away this morning at a Saudi Arabian Hospital,” the source said.

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Nigeria Tracker reports that Late President Muhammadu Buhari appointed late Justice Ibrahim Tanko into the exalted seat after the sacking of his predecessor Justice Samuel Walter Onnoghen over the issue of code of conduct in January 2019.

In Late 2022 Justice Ibrahim Tanko suddenly exited the seat due to what many said intense pressure from cabals in Late President Muhammad Buhari’s presidency and was succeeded by retired Justice olukayode .

Late Justice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad hails from Bauchi state .

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The Aso Rock Gossip That Made Late President Buhari Lock His Wife Out

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By Yusuf Danjuma Yunusa

In a new biography, former First Lady Aisha Buhari has revealed that late President Muhammadu Buhari began locking his bedroom door, preventing her from gaining access, after hearing rumors within Aso Rock that she intended to kill him.

This personal account is featured in the 600-page book, ‘From Soldier to Statesman: The Legacy of Muhammadu Buhari’, where Aisha Buhari details her experience managing her husband’s health challenges during his presidency.

She stated that the former president, trusting the gossip circulating within the presidential villa, altered some of his personal habits as a result.

The biography, which was authored by Charles Omole, director-general of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research, was launched at the presidential villa in Abuja.

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Many high-profile persons and political chieftains, including President Bola Tinubu, attended the launch.

In the book, Aisha said Buhari’s 2017 health crisis was not a mysterious ailment or the effect of poisoning, but began after a broken feeding routine and mismanaged nutritional habits.

The former first lady said she had long managed her husband’s meals and supplements at specific hours, adding that the regimen helped Buhari to maintain stability.

“According to Aisha Buhari, her husband’s 2017 health crisis did not originate as a mysterious ailment or a covert plot. It started, she says, with the loss of a routine; ‘my nutrition,’ she describes it, a pattern of meals and supplements she had long overseen in Kaduna before they moved into Aso Villa,” the book reads.

When they moved to the villa, she said she convened a meeting with close staff including Suhayb Rafindadi, the physician; Bashir Abubakar, the chief security officer; the housekeeper, and the DSS DG to explain the plan.

After some time, the plan was discontinued.

“When the Presidency’s machinery took over our private lives, I explained the plan: daily, at specific hours, cups and bowls with tailored vitamin powders and oil, a touch of protein here, a change to cereals there. Elderly bodies require gentle, consistent support,” Aisha was quoted as saying in the book.

“Then came the gossip and the fearmongering. They said I wanted to kill him.

“My husband believed them for a week or so,” she said, adding that the president began locking his room, changed small habits, and crucially, “meals were delayed or missed; the supplements were stopped”.

“For a year, he did not have lunch. They mismanaged his meals,” she added.

Aisha denied stories of plots to poison her husband, adding that Buhari’s health began deteriorating because of “loss of a routine, ‘my nutrition,’ was the genesis of the crisis”.

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