Why Obi Cubana, Kanayo O. Kanayo may bag six months jail term
Nigeria business mogul, Obinna Iyiegbu is popularly known as Obi Cubana, and Nollywood actor, Kanayo O Kanayo, risk six months in prison after breaching the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) rule.
Obi Cubana, the owner of Cubana Nightclub, one of the leading Nightclubs in the hospitality business has been the talk of not just the town, but the whole country as he threw a lavish burial ceremony for his late mother, Ezinne Iyiegbu.
Creekvibes News Magazine recalls that Cubana’s mother died in December 2020, and her burial was held this weekend at Oba, in Anambra State. The funeral rites were graced by Kanayo O. Kanayo, and another Nollywod actor, Alex Ekubo, amongst other celebrities.
Founder of Naira Bet and Nigerian lawmaker, Akin Alabi, was also in attendance at the event which recorded several breaches of the CBN naira usage rule.
Obi Cubana’s action that breached CBN rule
In one of the videos uploaded by Obi Cubana on his Instagram during the days-long celebration of life for his mother, he is seen spraying naira notes to persons around him.
In another video, he is seen dancing on naira notes sprayed on him by guests at his party, while Kanayo O Kanayo and other guests were also captured on video spraying Cubana naira notes.
The act of spraying naira and dancing on the note is an abuse of Nigeria’s currency, and it contravenes Section 21 of the CBN Act 2007, which stipulates six months of jail terms.
What the CBN act says about spraying and dancing on the naira
According to the act:
(1) A person who tampers with a coin or note issued by the Bank is guilty of an offence and shall on notes and coins imprisonment for a term not less than six months or to a fine not less than N50,000 or to both such fine and imprisonment.
(2) A coin or note shall be deemed to have been tampered with if the coin or note has been impaired, diminished, or lightened otherwise than by fair wear and tear or has been defaced by stumping, engraving, mutilating, piercing, stapling, writing, tearing, soiling, squeezing or any other form of deliberate and willful abuse whether the coin or note has or has not been thereby diminished or lightened.
(3) For the avoidance of doubt, spraying of, dancing, or matching on the Naira or any note issued by the Bank during social occasions or otherwise howsoever shall constitute abuse and defacing of the Naira or such note and shall be punishable under Sub-section (1) of this section.
Watch implicating video below;