WARRI: Residents of Warri and Effurun in Delta State, have continue to lament the untold hardship the lingering fuel scarcity has brought upon them just as banks continue to deny customers access to their own cash.

Checks on some banks by the Nigerian Observer reveal that, customers who came to the bank to withdraw cash, could not hide their frustrations after they were told by the bank tellers that they could neither pay them the old naira notes nor pay them in the new naira notes as they had exhausted the ones(new naira notes) they had over the weekend.

A customer simply identified as Tejiri who visited the First Bank inside the former Shell Edjeba Estate, was visibly confused, as she was unable to withdraw from her account. She remonstrated at the bank’s refusal to pay her the new notes.

“What kind of problem is this? I came here with my last money. I don’t even have transport fare to go back home,” Tejiri said.

The bank teller, touched by the lamentations of the customer, however paid her 200 naira(Two hundred naira) in 10 naira bills.

Efe Aghomwan who said she wanted to collect money to enable her prepare food for her family, also narrated her tale of woes. 

” I had to evacuate all the food I prepared from my freezer over the weekend because they all went bad; coming here now they are saying I can’t collect my money.”

“There’s no light to preserve food, no fuel for generator and now to collect my own money is wahala!.”What kind of country is this?” She asked

At the United Bank for Africa (UBA), Okumagba Branch, large crowd was seen at the ATMs as customers wait under intense sun trying to collect some money. Some customers who decried the situation said, had spent over 2 hours on the queue.

The situation was the same at First Bank branches at Airport Junction and Airport road; Polaris Bank, UBA, KEYSTONE BANK all branches at Water Resources along the ever busy Sapele/Warri road in Uvwie Local Government Area of Delta State.

Meanwhile, there seems to be no end in sight on the lingering fuel scarcity in Warri and Effurun metropolis. Most filling stations that had the product in Warri and Effurun were selling the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) for as high as N490 per litre.

Long queues of both jerrycans and vehicles were seen at Matrix Filling Station on Airport road as people waited in anticipation of sale.

Total Filling Station,at Okumagba junction, Shafa Filling on Sapele/ Warri road, and a host of others had no petrol as at the time of filing this report.