Islamic terrorists operating in North-Eastern Nigeria have distributed old naira notes to commuters on Borno State highway.
The old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes were earlier billed to cease being legal tenders on January 31 following the Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision, announced October last year, to withdraw, redesign and reissue the notes.
Daily Trust reports that a breakaway terrorist group, Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) distributed huge amounts of old notes to scores of commuters in the Lake Chad Basin as the deadline approached. The deadline has since been extended by the CBN to February 10.
The incident, according to Daily Trust report, occurred on Saturday after Mairari village, along the Maiduguri/Monguno highway in Guzamala LGA of Borno State.
The ISWAP members who gave out the unspecified amount of money were dressed in military camouflage and drove two gun trucks.
An eye witness, Bakura Ibrahim, said the insurgents positioned themselves under a tree and stood by the roadside with bags of old naira notes.
“We left Monguno at about 12 noon. As we approached Mairari, there were no existing checkpoints in the area; we were apprehensive,” Ibrahim narrated.
“They stopped us and asked if we were going to Maiduguri, then they started giving each person 100,000 old naira notes, but we could not believe it. They gave each occupant of the Golf Volkswagen,” Bakura said.
“The group simply told us, “If you think you can go to their banks and change it to new naira, go and do so; may Allah make it beneficial to you,” said Ibrahim.
