Despite Supreme Court order on February 3 which temporarily halted the ban on the use of old naira notes, business operators in some parts of Delta State have continued to reject the old N200, N500 and N1,000 notes.
The Nigerian Observer correspondent, who went round parts of the state to monitor use of the old currency, observed that they were being rejected by business owners. In Agbir, for instance, residents were forced to travel to nearby areas to use their old notes.
Residents who visited places like fuel stations, market places and motor parks since February 10 lamented that they found it difficult to spend their old notes in the university town.
“The whole of Agbor, nobody collects the old money except Hausa traders, and I didn’t buy anything from them. Filling stations don’t accept it. Where I buy things they don’t accept it. As a result, I haven’t been able to do anything since last Friday,” a trader in Agbor, who identified herself as Mrs Ighedosa, groaned in Pidgin English.
At some of the public places monitored on Tuesday, like RainOil and Olihe fuel stations at Agbor-Obi along Agbor-Asaba Expressway, attendants rejected the old notes. They insisted on the new ones, lower denominations (N50 or N100), or even bank transfer.
Also, sellers of food and other household items were rejecting the old notes for reasons they refused to tell this reporter who had inquired.
The situation was, however, different at Alifekede, a neighbouring community where shop owners still accepted both the old and new notes pending the Supreme Court determination of the suit before it on Wednesday, February 15.
Recall that following the redesign of the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the apex bank announced January 31 as deadline for use of the old notes, but the decision was met with outrage from Nigerians.
The pressure from Nigerians forced the CBN to extend the deadline to February 10 after which the notes would cease to be legal tender, but the governors of Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States approached the Supreme Court to request that the extention should be beyond February 10 as announced by the bank.
Following the suit, a seven-member panel, led by John Okoro, ordered the suspension of the February 10 deadline till February 15, when the suit would be determined by the Supreme Court.
