Stuck with wads of old naira notes, Islamic State of West Africa Province terrorists distributed the currency to commuters along the Maiduguri-Mungono expressway in Guzamala LGA of Borno State. According to reports by Daily Trust the ISWAP members who were dressed in military clothing and driving in two gun trucks took over the highway and started giving passersby money stored in several bags known as Ghana-must-go. “We left Monguno around 12 noon. As we approached Mairari, there were no existing checkpoints around the area, and we were apprehensive. “They asked if we were going to Maiduguri, after which they started giving each person N100,000 old notes, but we couldn’t believe it,” said Bakura Ibrahim a resident of Mairari Another resident said that the terrorists asked them to go to banks and change the money to new notes, and they said may Allah make it beneficial to you.”
Central Bank of Nigeria governor, Godwin Emefiele had given a huge amount of cash in the hands of terrorists as one of the reasons for the redesign of the naira. Nigerians are still finding it difficult to get the new naira notes as the CBN and the banks play blame games. The CBN insisted that there was an abundant supply of the new currency, but the banks argued to the contrary, most ATMs remained idle. The CBN has now shifted the Tuesday January 31 deadline to February 10 to enable more Nigerians to bring in their old notes.
