Borno State Governor, Prof. Babagana Zulum on Friday threatened that any bank which refuses to dispense new Naira notes would have its land revoked by the state government.
Zulum sent the warning in Maiduguri, the state capital, after visiting branches of banks to see first-hand the ordeals residents go through in trying to obtain new naira notes.
The governor expressed anger after seeing hundreds of people queuing at a bank branch, with only one out of 10 Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) dispensing cash.
According to him, the state just released salaries of about N5 billion but the banks were not paying customers.
He, therefore, declared: “Any bank in Borno State that is not willing to ensure their ATMs are fully dispensing new Naira notes to ease the suffering of our people, we will withdraw their land title immediately.
“We will only spare banks with genuine constraints that are verifiable.
“As you can see here, only less privileged people are queued up. I didn’t see rich people here.
“Many people are said to have been here since 3:00 am, some could not even eat anything.
“The new Naira note and even the old ones are not available and that is adversely affecting commercial activities in the state and people are suffering.
“We don’t have any problem with the CBN (Central Bank of Nigeria) policy or the withdrawal limit. They said individuals can only withdraw N20,000, but why can’t everyone have access to that N20,000?
“Yesterday I was in Gubio with a population of over 70,000 people, but it was impossible to source N100,000 in the entire local government, neither of the new Notes nor the old notes.
“Right now in Borno State, I have visited more than 10 ATMs and there’s no cash”.
