Bayelsa Calls For Calm, Asks Residents To Accept Old N1000, N500 Notes
The Supreme Court ordered that the old N500 and N1000 notes be in circulation alongside the old ones until December 31, 2023, and the Bayelsa State Government has urged banks, business owners, transporters, and traders in the state to follow this order.
This would lessen the hardship people were going through, according to the Commissioner for Information, Orientation and Strategy, Ayibaina Duba, who made the plea in a statement he delivered in Yenagoa on Saturday.
This occurrence happened shortly after hundreds of women and young people peacefully protested the state’s rejection of the old N1000 and N500 notes on Friday in the state capital.
The Bayelsa State government issued the following statement: “Bayelsa State government has said it understands the pains of residents of the state as a result of the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy implementation and the Supreme Court’s ruling regarding the old N200, N500, and N1000 currency notes.
The administration therefore implores citizens to maintain their composure and refrain from actions that might endanger the state’s tranquility.
“The government takes note of the Supreme Court’s ruling on March 3 that the old notes, which the CBN had begun to phase out, are still valid until December 31 of this year.
The state government is not opposed to the CBN’s or the federal government’s naira redesign strategy, but it is uncomfortable with how it has been implemented because it has put the state’s residents and the nation as a whole through more suffering.
To lessen the suffering of state residents, the government, therefore, urges business operators in the state, notably banks, traders, and keke (tricycles), to take the Supreme Court verdict into consideration.
The government further requests that the CBN take urgent action to reduce the administrative complexity of implementing the policy in order to make doing business in the state easier.
