Court jails three Bureau de Change operators in Kwara
By Mosunmola Ayobami, Ilorin
Justice Olukayode Ariwoola of the Federal High Court sitting in Ilorin on Monday, February 10, 2025, convicted and sentenced three bureau de change operators for operating without a license.
The convicts—Mustapha Idris, Hassan Bala, and Ajayi Ernest Isaac—all from Chikanda in Baruten Local Government Area of Kwara State, were prosecuted by the Ilorin Zonal Directorate of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on separate charges.
The charge against Idris reads: “That you, Mustapha Idris, sometime in July 2024, within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court, did carry on the business of a financial institution, to wit: bureau de change, without a valid license issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, thereby committing 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.”
The charge against Bala reads: “That you, Hassan Bala, sometime in July 2024, within the judicial division of the Federal High Court, carried on the business of a financial institution, to wit: bureau de change, without a valid license issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, thereby committing 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.”
All three defendants pleaded “guilty” when the charges were read to them.
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 (Three Hundred and Twenty-Three Thousand Naira) recovered from him at the point of arrest be forfeited to the federal government.
Bala was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of N200,000 (Two Hundred Thousand Naira). The court also ordered that the sum of CFA677,500 and N881,900 (Eight Hundred and Eighty-One Thousand, Nine Hundred Naira) recovered from him be forfeited to the federal government.
Isaac was sentenced to six months’ imprisonment or a fine of N500,000 (Five Hundred Thousand Naira). In addition, he forfeited the sum of $31 (Thirty-One United States Dollars) recovered from him to the federal government.
