Jan 31st deadline: I’ve not seen new naira notes – Ortom

Six days to the deadline for the exchange of old naira notes for the new notes, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue has not seen the new currency.

Ortom made the disclosure on Wednesday, January 25 when the Governing Council and Management of the Joseph Sarwuan Tarka University, Makurdi (JOSTUM) paid him a courtesy visit.

The governor said: “As governor, I have not seen any new naira despite six days to the deadline. What will happen to the man in the village? I join the senate in calling for the extension of the change of the currency from the old to the new one.”

He called on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to extend the deadline of the use of the old naira notes, especially for those in the rural areas.

The governor said that since the new notes were not much in circulation, it was not possible, especially for the rural dwellers, to meet up with the deadline, adding that most of them did not even have bank accounts.

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“I join the National Assembly members to prevail on the CBN to extend the deadline of exchange of the old naira notes.

“If we do not say it as it were we are liars and sycophants. Things are not right in this country.

“We want to let the President know that people are suffering and something must be done to reduce it,” Ortom said.

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari for heeding to the demand of immortalising late Joseph Sarwuan Tarka by changing the name of the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi to JOSTUM.

The Star