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From Ogbonnaya Ndukwe, Aba
Banks in Aba, Abia State, on Tuesday, resumed paying old N1,000 and N500, to customers who came to withdraw cash from their branches. Though there were early denials by officials of some of the financial houses, that they had neither the old or new Naira notes to dispense, customers that persevered in the scourging sun, were later said to have been lucky to withdraw maximum cash of N20,000, from their accounts.
However, sellers of household items including food, clothing materials and other essential goods, mostly needed by residents of the city, refused to collect the old notes as they complained that their banks and wholesale dealers in goods, refused to accept sme for purchases or banking.
It was gathered that many commercial banks in the city through their operational staff, have been rejecting the old currency notes from customers trying to deposit monies in the banks Chima Ibemka, a trader told Daily Sun, that bank officials were refusing to collect the old notes from him.
“I went to my bank to pay in the old N1,000 I had realised from sales, but the cashiers rejected them. They told me they would not collect the money without directive from the CBN.”
“When I wanted to withdraw cash, they tried to issue me with the same old ones with a condition that I should not return them for deposit should they be rejected by those i want to buy things from.”Another trader, Johnson Ugochukwu, an electric appliances dealer, said that after his banker friend advised him to come with the old notes, counter clerks he went to, refused to accept them for deposit.
“They told me that they were yet to be directed by their management to resume acceptance of the old N1,000 and N500 notes.” “This is very frustrating as you hear one story from the authorities today but when one goes to the banks, he meets with the opposite. We are hungry and tired of these sufferings,” he lamented. At the local foodstuffs markets, the story is almost the same though some of the traders, especially sellers of perishable items like tomatoes, okra,vegetables for soup making among others, openly canvas for customers to come and buy with either the old or new notes, with items purchased with the new notes costing cheaper than those to be bought with the old ones.
Responding to a question on the issue, Madam Grace Iroh, a gari seller, said lack of patronage and with nothing to feed on, had pushed her and some other colleagues into the bet, and doubted if the old notes they realize from such bargain will be collected from them by the banks.
“What we are actually doing is trying to help people out by collecting the old notes, but we don’t know what will happen when we present them to the banks as deposits, if they will be accepted and accounted for as ours.”
She appealed to the authorities to urgently proffer solutions that will cushion the sufferings of Nigerians who the present scarcity have driven into hunger and want despite having their money deposited in banks.
?????As commercial banks resume payment…
. Nigerians reject old N500, N1,000, flout Supreme Court judgement
. Says they’ll accept when Buhari, CBN, give order
Some traders and marketers in Lagos have said they would accept the old denominated naira notes of N500 and N1,000, only when President Muhammadu Buhari gives the order.
The people told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in separate interviews that they were being careful and at the same time, waiting for the Central Bank Governor and Buhari to speak on the issue.
They also said that the time frame given by the Supreme Court will allow the apex bank to print enough of the new notes and circulate to banks for people to use.
Mr Barnabas Israel, a food Vendor at Ori-Oke, Ejigbo, doubted if the old naira notes were still available in the banks, saying that Nigerians have already deposited all in the banks.
“Is there any old notes outside after everybody has deposited the one they had?
“However, no one has brought the old notes to my shop, and if they do, I would not collect it because no one is collecting it in my area,’’ he said.
Mrs Paulina Akuneme, a Baker at Ili-ewe, Ikotun-Egbe, also spoke in the same vein, saying “I do not need the old notes again after what I passed through to deposit the notes the first time that the authority pronounced it had expired.
“What I expected the Supreme Court to have done was to order the Central Bank to print more of the new notes and make it available for people to see and use.
“Nigerians have moved on. I can assure you that we are still going to experience this difficulty by December,’’ she said.
Alhaji Musa Jamiu, a yam seller in Liasu market, also said he would not collect the old notes until the president said so.
“Is it the Supreme court that own the Central Bank or print the currency, it is the central bank and the Federal Government that can do so and put them into circulation.
“It is until they choose to obey the Supreme Court order, the Supreme Court order is null and void as far as I know.
“Do you not know that the N200 note is in circulation because the federal government and the central bank say it should be, so the notes were brought back in circulation,’’ he said.
NAN reports that the Supreme Court on March 3, ordered that the old naira notes should remain as legal tender till Dec. 31.
It also nullified the Federal Government’s Naira redesign policy, declaring it as an affront to the 1999 Constitution.
Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgement, held that the preliminary objections by the defendants (the Attorney General of the Federation, Bayelsa and Edo states) are dismissed as the court has the jurisdiction to entertain the suit.
Citing Section 23(2)1 of the constitution, the court held that the dispute between the Federal Government and states must involve law or facts.
