By Lukman Olabiyi
Justice Kehinde Ogundare of the Federal High Court, Lagos State, has granted businessman and socialite, Pascal Okechukwu, popularly known as Cubana Chief Priest, who was arraigned before the court over alleged Naira abuse.
The celebrity bar man was arraigned before the court by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) but the defendant pleaded not guilty to tampering and abusing the naira.
In the charge marked FHC/L/ 246/2024, E alleged that sometime in 2020, during a social event in Lagos, Cubana Chief Priest tampered with funds in the denomination of N500 issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, by spraying the same for two hours.
In Count 3, it was alleged: “That you, Okechukwu Pascal, sometime in January 2024, in Lagos during a social event, tampered with funds in the denomination of N500 (Five Hundred Naira) issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria by spraying same and you thereby committed an offence, contrary to and punishable under Section 21(1) of the Central Bank Act 2007.”
However, the trial judge has admitted the defendant to bail, in the sum of N10m with two sureties in like sum.
Details later…