New Currency Crisis: Police Ramp on Citizens Rejecting Old Notes

State governments and the Police commands have begun clamping down on traders and supermarkets accused of rejecting the old naira notes. 

Authorities in Kano, Sokoto, Katsina, Bayelsa, Zamfara and Kwara states had issued stern order to security agencies to appropriately address citizens who turned down the old N1000, N500 and N200 notes.

The development is due to the confusion caused by the failure of the Central Bank of Nigeria to give further directives to commercial banks on the extension of the February 10 deadline for the currency swap after last week Wednesday’s Supreme Court ruling that denied the FG from enforcing the time limit.

This is as the Catholic Bishops declared the CBN policy as disastrous; stressing that it has turned Nigerians to beggars.

The Kano State Governor, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje ordered the acting Chairman of Kano State Consumer Protection Council, Dr Baffa Dan’agundi to close Wellcare Supermarket for refusing to accept the old naira notes despite the state government’s statement that the currency remains legal tender.

He further strongly warned other businesses in Kano that the state government had not banned the use of old naira notes in the entire state.

Many ATM points in the state were not dispensing the new notes over the weekend while the few PoS operators still operating charged higher commissions ranging from N150 to N300 per every N1,000 withdrawal.

In Sokoto, the State Police Command has promised to deal with anyone rejecting the old notes.

The command’s Public Relations Officer, Sanusi Abubakar, who stated that the force has not received any complaint; he however, called on the good citizens of the state to report anyone rejecting the old naira notes to the law enforcement agents in the state.

Abubakar said, ‘’I’m sure you know we can only react if there is a complaint against anyone rejecting the notes but so far, we have not gotten any report of such in the state. I can assure you that we are on top of the situation and we will do the needful if such a report is made.’’

Further Read:https://punchng.com/states-police-clamp-down-on-traders-rejecting-old-notes/

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