The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) has arrested an accountant with Oando filling station and a Point of Sale (PoS) machine operator in Dutse, Abuja over alleged racketeering of the new naira notes. The Commission revealed this on Friday in a statement issued by its Spokesperson, Azuka Ogugua.
The statement reads, “The ICPC Monitoring Team had earlier received a tip-off that the said filling station deliberately disconnected its Point of Sale (PoS) services so that motorists could not have access to the Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, using their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards.
“Upon reaching the petrol station, the team found out that motorist were forced to pay for the product in cash, and those without the new notes were directed to a PoS operator directly opposite the filling station to access the cash.
“ICPC operatives found out that the PoS did not only belong to the accountant of the filling station, but it was charging a very high exorbitant rate as commission against the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
“The sum of one million naira (N1,000,000) was discovered with the PoS operator which the ream directed that should be paid into a bank account. The accountant was arrested alongside the PoS operator, and both have been granted administrative bail by the Commission.”
The latest arrest, followed the continued nationwide onslaught by security agencies on some elements, who have taken advantage of the scarcity of naira notes, to swindle and place high charges to obtain the naira notes.