A 55-year-old Nigerian man, Aremu Timothy Adegboyega, has been deported from Ghana after he was caught with fake currency worth more than $100,000.

He was convicted by a court in Accra after being found guilty of bringing in large amounts of counterfeit CFA Francs.

At the start of the trial, Adegboyega denied the charges. But halfway through the case, he changed his mind and admitted he was guilty.

He was charged with having fake currency, which goes against Ghana’s Currency Act, and also for entering Ghana without proper documents.

The court gave him two options: pay a fine of GH¢3,000 or spend two years in prison doing hard labour. He also received another fine of GH¢1,440 or face another two years in prison.

Adegboyega was arrested on January 17, 2023, by customs officers at the Aflao border between Ghana and Togo.

He was riding on the back of a motorcycle and had a backpack. This made the officers suspicious, and they decided to search him.

When they checked his bag, they found bundles of fake money. This included CFA Francs worth CFA 80,653,000 and Nigerian Naira amounting to ₦101,500.

Further checks showed that he had smuggled the fake money into Ghana from neighbouring Togo.

During questioning, Adegboyega admitted that he knew the money was not real. He confessed that he got the fake notes from a man named Alhaji Saibu in Nigeria.

He also claimed that Saibu was working for someone called Alhaji Dials, who he described as a mafia boss based in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.

The case was handed over to the Ghana Police Service on January 20, 2023, for more investigations.

Ghanaian officials said this case shows how serious the country is about protecting its borders and stopping the spread of fake money.