**Reject N500, N1000 notes
By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Expectedly, many people started flooding the commercial banks with the old Naira notes especially the N200 denomination which was ordered back into circulation by President Muhammadu Buhari in his last nationwide broadcast.
Prompt News can confirm that most deposit money banks visited in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on Monday are dispensing cash Over the Counter (OTC), although they are only giving their customers the old N200 notes.
However, they can only cash the sum of N5,000 of the old N200 notes at one of the first generation banks, UBA Plc located at WAEC Building in Maitama, Abuja, the notes are all in bad shape as most of it are dirty, torn and shredded beyond recognition as a Nigeria currency.
Even at that, crowd of desperate bank customers can be seen at most of the commercial banks visited on Monday by our reporter, still trying to force their ways into the banking halls.
This is even as the Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) belonging to most of the banks and micro-finance banks in Abuja are without cash, a situation which has created a surge into the banking halls of commercial banks.
Amongst the banks rationing payments to customers on Monday morning are UBA Plc, GTBank, Access Bank and Unity Bank branches at Area 3, Garki in Abuja metropolis.
Meanwhile, a bank official who pleaded anonymity said that most of the N200 old Naira notes the banks are rationing to customers at the moment were brought by some corrupt politicians and their collaborators who were cut in the cobwebs of currency swap policy of the federal government.
It was gathered that some corrupt politicians have like the Biblical Necodimus, brought back Ghana-must-go bags of old Naira notes which they hitherto hidden in the septic tanks.
He also told our reporter that more of huge deposits of N200 old Naira notes will be received by the banks before Saturday’s Presidential and National Assembly (NASS) elections which desperate politicians are targeting to win by buying votes with the humongous money they stashed away in the warehouses.
