The convicts,  Asmau Wuraola, Owoduni Abdullahi Isa, and  Shuaibu Rukayat, were jailed by Justice Evelyn Anyadike.

They were arraigned by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission.

The EFCC alleged that the convicts on February 17  “did trade in naira notes issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 21 (4) of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007.”

The prosecution said the defendants were liable to punishment under Section 21 (1) of the same Act.

The defendants pleaded guilty to the charges.

While reviewing the facts of the case, the EFCC prosecutor, Innocent Mbachie, said naira notes were recovered from the convicts.

Delivering judgment, Justice Anyadike pronounced the defendants guilty and sentenced them to various jail terms.

The judge sentenced Wuraola to two months imprisonment with an option of fine of  N50,000 while she ordered that the sum of N1,020,000  recovered from the her be forfeited to the Federal Government.

Furthermore, the judge ordered the EFCC to destroy the POS machine recovered from her.

Isa, on the other hand, was sentenced to six months imprisonment with an  option of fine of  N50,000 while the sum of N150,000  recovered from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.

The judge also sentenced Rukayat to six months imprisonment with an  option of  a fine of N50,000 while the sum of N200,000 recovered from him be forfeited to the Federal Government.

The Federal Government has in recent times begun a clampdown on illegal currency dealers in a bid to arrest the free fall of the naira.

Last week, a Kano court jailed two illegal Bureau de Change operators while 16 others were remanded in prison in Port Harcourt.

On Monday, the police in Lagos took 19 BDC operators before the Federal High Court in Lagos for arraignment. The charges were, however, withdrawn by the police at the last minute.

The Appellate Court in a judgement by a three-member panel headed by Justice Hamma Akawu Barka held that the Federal High Court Umuahia had no jurisdiction to have entertained the case because the plaintiff, Nduka Edede, lacked the locus standi to have filed the suit in the first place.

The Appellate Court added that Edede did not establish any cause of action to have warranted his approaching the court on the issue because he did not establish that he was directly affected by the provision.

The Court of Appeal struck out the suit marked: FHC/UM/CS/26/2022 which Edede filed before the FHC in Umuahia.

While determining the appeal on the merit, the Appellate Court however held that the provision was unconstitutional because it violated Section 42 (1)(a) of the constitution and denied a class of Nigerian citizens their right to participate in election.

The judgment was on the appeal marked: CA/OW/87/2022 filed by the Peoples Democratic Party.

Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act provides that, “No political appointee at any level shall be a voting delegate or be voted for at the convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

The PDP had sued the President, the Attorney General of the Federation, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives and Clerk of National Assembly.

It also sued the Senate Leader, House of Representatives Leader, and the Independent National Electoral Commission as 1st to 8th defendants respectively.

Others include Deputy Senate President, Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives, Deputy Senate Leader, and Deputy Leader of the House of Representatives as 9th to 12th defendants in the matter.

The PDP had challenged the legality or otherwise of the National Assembly tinkering with the Electoral Act, after it had been signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Amidst debate about the subject matter, a Federal High Court sitting in Umuahia and presided over by Justice Evelyn Anyadike, on March 18, ordered the AGF to delete Section 84(12) of the Act.

Anyadike, in the judgment, held that the section was “unconstitutional, invalid, illegal, null, void and of no effect whatsoever and ought to be struck down as it cannot stand when it is in violation of the clear provisions of the Constitution.”

Anyadike held that Sections 66(1)(f), 107(1)(f), 137(1)(f), and 182(1)(f) of the 1999 Constitution already stipulated that appointees of government seeking to contest elections were only to resign at least 30 days to the date of the election.