According to the anti-graft bureau, a well-known makeup artist was sentenced to six months in prison by a Nigerian court on Monday for misusing the country’s currency by flinging banknotes into the air before his wedding.
Although “spraying,” or celebrating with bank notes, is popular at Nigerian weddings and parties, it is illegal due to the fact that it denigrates the country’s currency, the naira.
Abdullahi Musa Huseini, popularly known as Amuscap, was sentenced to six months in prison by a federal high court in the northern city of Kano for abusing naira, according to a statement from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
It said he threw one hundred 1,000 naira notes, together worth about $63, at his wedding in December. Huseini “willfully defaced and abused the naira notes”, it added.
Since last year, the EFCC has been enforcing a 2007 law that outlaws abuse of the naira.
Critics claim the rule is being applied selectively, and the agency has singled out a number of celebrities. At Nigerian weddings and gatherings, the showering of naira notes over dancing brides and grooms is frequently a highlight.
A court last year sentenced a transgender woman known as Bobrisky to six months in jail for throwing banknotes at a film premiere. Actor Oluwadarasimi Omoseyin was jailed for six months last year after she was filmed “spraying” and walking on banknotes.
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