Operatives of the Enugu Zonal Command of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, in conjunction with a Joint Task Force comprising five teams from the Nigeria Police Force and three teams from the Nigeria Customs Service on Wednesday, February 21, 2024 arrested 115 (One hundred and fifteen) suspected currency racketeers in Enugu State.
EFCC in a statement posted on their social media handle, said “the suspects comprising 113 (One hundred and thirteen) males and two females were arrested in a sting operation at Owerri Road, Ogui, Enugu State, following credible intelligence about some bureau de change operators, currency speculators and street hawkers operating illegal foreign exchange markets in that environment.
“Items recovered from them include: N110, 700,000.00 (One Hundred and Ten Million, Seven Hundred Thousand Naira) only, $8,368.00 (Eight Thousand, Three Hundred and Sixty Eight United States Dollars), £145.00 (One Hundred and Forty Five Pounds), €2,725 (Two Thousand, Seven Hundred Twenty Five Euros), 900 South African Rands, 32,000.00 CFA, 100 Turkiya, and 500 Bank Mozambique currencies in different denominations. A safe abandoned by one of the street hawkers was also recovered.
“Preliminary investigation showed that some of the suspects are foreigners
from Niger Republic.
“They would soon be charged to court.”
However, a witness who spoke to our correspondent, said the action of the anti-graft agency and other security agencies should worry every Nigerian.
According to the source who doesn’t want his name in print over fear of intimidation, said “we’re not racketeers and that tag is just giving a dog name to nail it.
“When they came here, they said we are hoarding dollars. When they didn’t see any stack of dollars, they packed all the Naira we have and left with a meagre $8,000.
“What’s that amount? We’re in buying and selling and I don’t know how we’re tye cause of the current nosediving of the Naira.”
He appealed to the security agencies to please release those in detention as they’ve not done anything to warrant their arrest.
