Officials of the Department of State Services, in conjunction with the Central Bank of Nigeria, and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defense Corps, have arrested 14 persons including a lady over the alleged illegal sale of new naira notes in Kano.

The State Commandant of the NSCDC, Adamu Zakari, disclosed this while parading the suspects at the NSCDC State Headquarters in Kano, Tuesday evening.

He said the suspects were apprehended during a joint operation in the metropolis as part of efforts to check the illegal act which contravened the CBN Act.

“The clamp down on the new naira vendors and sellers is hinged on the CBN Act, Section 20 to counterfeit, hawk, sell or otherwise trade the naira notes, coins or any other note issued by the bank,” he said

“Investigations have already commenced to ascertain the source or otherwise of the naira notes recovered from the suspects,” Zakari said.

He listed the suspects as: Alhaji Ubandi Hotoro,82, Haruna Yahaya, 42, Rabiu Ibrahim, 34, Ismaila Umar, 20, and Nura Aminu, 45, Nasiru Adamu, 40 and Nazef Lawal, 20.

The rest were Sulaiman Tijjani, 35, Mustapha Haruna, 47, Aminu Jibril, 23, Lawal Ibrahim, 40, Abubakar Jibril, 45, Abdullahi Hassan, 30 and Fatima Ibrahim, 30.

He said the NSCDC, the DSS and the CBN would continue to the clamp down on the perpetrators of the illegal act which was a punishable offence under the CBN Act.

“For the avoidance of doubt, act of spraying the naira notes at occasions, soiling and writing on it, squeezing, handling as well as counterfeit of the country currency notes are abuse of the naira and are punishable by the law,” he said.

He said as soon as investigation into the matter was completed, the suspects would be charged to court.

In an interview with one of the suspects, Alhaji Ubandi Hotoro, he said nothing incriminating was found on him because he was at a place to settle a dispute between some of the suspects and security agents.