BY JOHN EBIOFINI
There was confusion at Akure CBN branch in Ondo state on Friday as customers were redirected to their various banks to deposit their old 500 and 1000 notes.
This was because the banks had completely refused to accept the said notes.
Speaking to Radio Nigeria, a customer Mrs Deborah Ajide who had travelled from ọrẹ to deposit her old notes said the CBN refused to attend to them.
Mrs Ajide said some officers of CBN stated that the bank had sent an email to all banks to receive the old notes.
She pointed out that the CBN asked them to go to their various banks because the money each person was holding was below 500,000 naira.
Some other people expressed disappointment as they could not deposit their old notes as directed by CBN.
They therefore pleaded with the Federal Government to address the issue amicably as they could not use their money again.
They said the commercial banks’ refusal to give them new naira notes pushed them to being in possession of the old Naira Notes beyond deadline.
The CBN portal to submit old notes for new ones closes today.
Those who tried to log in to the said portal were not successful as they got a message that “service interruption for maintenance, we will be back shortly . We regret any inconvenience caused by this”.
Police officers were deployed to maintain peace and forestall any form of chaos at the gate of CBN.