Amidst scarcity of the new Naira notes across Nigeria, guests at a recent occasion in Port Harcourt were reportedly given new naira notes and two tubers of yam each.
In the photos making the rounds online, the chairs at the venue were carefully arranged and two tubers of yam together with new naira notes were spotted on the chairs.
This is happening amid the naira scarcity and struggles Nigerians have been facing since the release of the newly designed naira notes.
Reacting to this, @nwabundo51 wrote: “They created this chaos so that they can easily learn the people with this cuz they know that a lot of people are hungry”
@Enoredia said: “Wow I thought they turned people to yam 😂.”
@prince_chinedu_stephen wrote: “What’s happening here??? don’t tell me if politicians hand work.”
TheNewsGuru.com (TNG) reports that the CBN governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, in a public announcement, extended the deadline for legal tender status of the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes from 31 January to 10 February.
The extension followed a public outcry that greeted the scarcity of the new naira banknotes. The CBN governor announced the extension after meeting with President Buhari, and directed banks to receive the old bank notes even after the deadline.
Meanwhile, a new generation bank in Ekiti on Sunday ran into trouble waters as the Central Bank of Nigeria, uncovered N6 million of new naira notes hoarded by its branch along bank road, Ado-Ekiti.
The Apex bank Deputy Director, Oluwole Owoeye uncovered the hoarded newly redesigned currencies while leading a team of officials on monitoring exercise in the state.
Owoeye accused the bank of deliberately hoarding the new banknotes it had collected from the CBN for almost two weeks.
The Deputy Director who said there was no excuse for keeping the money, saying Deposit Money Banks are sabotaging the apex bank’s efforts in making the new notes available for Nigerians.
His words, “I’m currently at the Bank, Ado-Ekiti as part of this monitoring compliance with the guidelines by CBN. They have six million which they have collected from the bank for almost two weeks. They have not dispensed any. They said they are yet to configure their ATM.
“I don’t know why. I have brought their attention to the penalty clause of one million per day. They have five ATMs. They don’t have any reason for keeping this money.
“The zonal service manager, Mr Tunde Onipede promised that by 10am latest tomorrow (Monday), because I told him by latest 10:00 am I’ll be here and I want to see the machine dispensing this money.
“What is the name again? Olumide Owolabi (Service Manager, Ado) & Motunrayo Babayele. My name is Oluwole Owoeye and I am a deputy director of CBN”.
