{"id":70982,"date":"2025-07-19T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/?p=70982"},"modified":"2025-07-19T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T06:00:00","slug":"spraying-naira-not-culture-its-crime-efcc-cautions-nigerians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/2025\/07\/19\/spraying-naira-not-culture-its-crime-efcc-cautions-nigerians\/","title":{"rendered":"Spraying Naira Not Culture, It\u2019s Crime, EFCC Cautions Nigerians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Oso Abidemi\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has warned Nigerians that spraying, mutilating, or stamping on the naira is a criminal offence, not a cultural practice.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking at a stakeholders\u2019 sensitisation programme in Lagos on Friday, Olukoyede stressed that the naira remains a vital symbol of national sovereignty and must be treated with respect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSpraying money in the air is not culture. It is an offence, and ignorance of the law is not an excuse,\u201d he declared at the event held at the Colonades Hotel, Ikoyi.<\/p>\n<p>The EFCC chairman announced the formation of a Task Force on Dollarisation and Naira Abuse in collaboration with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), aimed at curbing both the abuse of the naira and illegal foreign exchange activities.<\/p>\n<p>Olukoyede dismissed public justifications that link money-spraying to Nigerian tradition, saying, \u201cNobody who works hard for money throws it around. We must preserve the dignity of our currency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He revealed that enforcement has been intensified across the country, leading to arrests and prosecutions of celebrities and others involved in naira abuse.<\/p>\n<p>He also disclosed that over 150 Chinese nationals have been prosecuted for financial crimes, while 792 suspects were recently arrested in Lagos and Abuja, many linked to international fraud syndicates.<\/p>\n<p>On economic recovery, the EFCC boss said the commission has recovered over N100 billion, redirected to fund initiatives like the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFund), and the CrediCorp consumer credit scheme.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn Kaduna, a property seized from a corrupt civil servant now houses the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<p>Olukoyede reiterated the commission\u2019s commitment to prosecuting high-profile offenders, including four former governors and three ex-ministers currently facing trial.<\/p>\n<p>To strengthen prevention efforts, he unveiled the new Department of Fraud Risk Assessment and Control (FRAC), and noted the commission\u2019s growing public engagement via EFCC Radio 97.3FM and other media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis campaign to protect the naira and restore integrity in our financial system is a collective responsibility. It\u2019s not for EFCC alone,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Oso Abidemi\u00a0 The Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede, has warned Nigerians that spraying, mutilating, or stamping on the naira is a criminal offence, not a cultural practice. Speaking at a stakeholders\u2019 sensitisation programme in Lagos on Friday, Olukoyede stressed that the naira remains a vital symbol [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":70983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[181,172],"tags":[59],"class_list":["post-70982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","category-news","tag-featured"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70982"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70982\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70984,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70982\/revisions\/70984"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abujacityjournal.com\/livenews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}