DSS arrests 8 persons for allegedly printing fake $1.4m, N98m notes

A syndicate of seven men and one woman have been arrested by the Department of State Service (DSS) for allegedly printing fake N98 million notes and US$1.487,700.

The State Security Service (SSS) charged the suspects on a two-count charge bordering on forgery which they pleaded not guilty to.

However, the eight (8) persons were on Thursday remanded by a Gwagwalada Chief Magistrates’ Court.

The Chief Magistrate, Aliyu Shafa, ordered them to be remanded in Suleja Correctional Centre.

Their names are: Musa Mayo, Bala Jatau, Ibrahim Dangana, Luka Daniel, Nnemeka Ude, Asebe Zainab, Sani Muhammed and Abdulkarim Ahmed.

The Chief Magistrate ordered the defence counsel to make a formal bail application for their clients following the oral bail application they made.

Shafa rejected the oral bail application because of the gravity of the offence.

He, however, adjourned the matter until Sept. 13, to move the application for motion on bail.

Earlier, the prosecution counsel, Victor Ejelonu, told the court that the defendants and others now at large, sometimes between January and July, conspired amongst themselves to defraud members of the public.

Ejelonu said that they printed fake naira notes amounting to N98 million and fake dollar notes amounting to US$1,487,700.

He said that the defendants had the intention of using the forged notes as a genuine instrument to fraudulently defraud members of the Nigerian public.

He said that the offences contravened the provisions of sections 96 and 368 of the Penal Code.

Simon Okoro, counsel to the first, second and fifth defendants, prayed the court to grant the defendants bail in the most liberal terms, citing sections 158 and 162 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) to buttress his claims.

Other defence counsel in the matter includes Chinyere Muoneme and M. D. Ayodele.