Protest: Traders urge govt to prevail on banks to collect old naira notes

By David Adeoye

Traders across major markets in Ibadan,Oyo State, on Wednesday staged a protest, calling on both the Federal and State Governments to prevail on commercial banks in the state to collect old naira notes from them.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that traders from Bode, Molete, Oja-Oba, Oje Markets, among others, in their hundreds, trooped to the major roads in the city, chanting unpleasant songs against the new naira policy.

The protesters, carrying leaves, symbolising the peaceful nature of the protest, trekked to the frontage of the state Secretariat at Agodi, demanding to see Gov. Seyi Makinde.

A protester, Mrs Monsurat Dekunle, narrating her ordeals, said she went to her bank on Tuesday afternoon to deposit N250,000 old notes, but the bank refused to allow her make the deposit.

According to Dekunle, the cashier told her that what she brought had ceased to be legal tender since Feb. 10.

She called on the state governor to intervene by prevailing on all commercial banks operating in the state not to reject the old naira notes.

Also, Mr Awojobi Eniola, said he went to one of the commercial banks to pay for his goods with N300,000 cash over the counter, but the cashier told him that the bank had been instructed not to collect the old naira notes.

Eniola urged the management of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the relevant authorities to have a rethink on such instruction to avoid anarchy in the country.

NAN reports that Mr Moses Adeyanju, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Better Education Service Delivery for All (BESDA), addressed the protesters on behalf of the state government.

Adeyanju pleaded with the protesters to remain calm.

He promised to deliver their messages and demands to the governor, whom he said was “currently on the field of campaign in Oke-Ogun zone”.

(NAN)