By; USMAN NASIDI, Kaduna
In line with the previous directives by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) of January 31, 2023 deadline, before extension of collecting the old Naira notes of 1,000, 500 and 200, a government owned filling station located at Stadium Roundabout Kaduna, has long started rejecting the changed Naira notes, five days before the old deadline.
The former Oando Filling Station now owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Cooperation Limited (NNPC), that is expected to have good working relationship with the commercial banks across the nation and also expected to have good working relationship with the motorists is making things harder for its customers.
According to some motorists who spoke with our correspondent in Kaduna, the fuel attendants have been refusing to collect the old Naira notes since Friday January 27, except the new Naira notes.
Malam Hussaini, a commercial motorist explained that on Saturday morning when he joined the filling station que, he wasn’t aware of the recent changes until that evening when he was about getting the fuel, but unfortunately he just had to qyit the queue because the entire money he was holding happened to be the old Naira notes.
He added that, aside from the new Naira notes, the filling station only recognized ATM Cards using there POS or bank transfers, while most of them were in position of the old Naira notes that was redesigned, so they were left with no option but to walk away because more commercial motorists and other people could not buy fuel from them within the two days they sold out because of the new policy.
“This is a government owned filling station that is expected to reduce the pains of the masses, but unfortunately, what we are witbessing here is something different from what is expected.
“So, if government owned filling station can do such a thing to make things more harder and difficult to the citizens of the country, what do we expect from the commercial filling stations?
“Something urgent needs to be done to arrest such issues, because yesterday, I had to go and buy black market contrary to my will after staying all through the day, hence the new Naira notes are not available and we commercial motorists mostly collect old notes from people who we render services to, and here I am again, today Sunday with same old Naira notes. So what will happen if we too decide not to collect the changed old Naira notes?” He queried.
Meanwhile, according to a reliable source who’s name is unidentified and works at the filling station, disclosed that the directives was from the branch director, Alhaji Haliru, who ordered the management staff and fuel attendants not to collect the old Naira notes as part of his policy to meet up with the CBN’s old January 31 deadline directives.
