The Ogun State Governor, Prince Dapo Abiodun, has warned that the State government would shut down any Commercial Banks operating in the state that refused to accept old naira notes.
The governor spoke on Tuesday while addressing market men and women at Itoku Kampala market in Abeokuta, as part of his reelection campaign to Abeokuta North Local Government Areas.
This warning is sequel to complains received from the Ogun people by the state government that commercial banks and some filling stations are rejecting the old naira notes as legal tender.
Abiodun, who frowned at the action of the banks, noted that since the new naira notes was not available, commercial banks must accept the old notes to ease the suffering of the people.
He called on the people to remain calm, assuring that his government was working assiduously to ensure that the present situation was brought under control.
Meanwhile, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had originally fixed January 31 as deadline for old notes to be in circulation but was extended to February 10, in response to pressure from Nigerians.
However, before the February 10 deadline, Kogi, Kaduna and Zamfara States approached the Supreme Court, seeking that the CBN from be restrained going ahead with the deadline, as the Court answered their prayer and adjourned the case till February 15.
While there has been silence on the part of the apex bank since the court gave its ruling which threw Nigerians into confusion on the state of the old notes widely rejected but accepted in some places.
Commenting on the development in a chat with journalists, CBN Branch Controller in Bauchi, Haladu Idris Andaza, said the old notes were no longer legal tender.
“In the last 24 hours, we have been inundated by questions from various angles of the general public about our operational guidelines on the old currency notes, be that as it may, there are so many questions here and there which people have been asking about.”
“So for the avoidance of doubt, we wish to state categorically that CBN is ready and is opened to receive all of those old notes based on certain conditions and criteria.
“Customers are free to come to the Bank and deposit which they cannot do at Commercial Banks anymore because the currency has seized to be a legal tender since the 10th of this month.
“Consequently, the management of CBN decided that those customers will have a sigh of relief by coming to the offices of the CBN in all the 36 states in the Federation including FCT to deposit their money.
“The customer has to go to the CBN portal and fill a form in the portal, there will be a form there concerning this currency redesign and exchange.
“After filling the form, you generate a code, you either print it or come with it in your mobile phone, give us the code and the information contained therein.
“In the form, you are expected to provide all the basic information about yourself, your account details and the amount you want to deposit.”
“By the time you have done it correctly, you come to the CBN where the code will be accepted from you as well as the money, process and confirm genuineness or otherwise of the money to avoid receiving fake notes because there are some fake notes in circulation now”, he said.