Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State has accused the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, of benefiting from the scarcity of the new naira notes.
Naija News reports that the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had extended the deadline for the swap of old naira notes to February 10, to enable Nigeria carrying out the exchange.
The CBN initially fixed January 31 as the deadline but many Nigerians have not been able to get the new N200, N500, and N1000 notes, prompting a scarcity in the country.
Atiku, who had initially called for the deadline extension, recently urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the CBN not to extend it any further, as this may defeat the purpose of the redesigned naira note.
Speaking on TVC, El-Rufai accused the former Vice President of taking advantage of the chaos the scramble for the new notes has caused across the country.
While stressing that the All Progressives Congress was not against the cashless policy, the governor argued for extension of time to enable the citizens to lodge their money in the banks.
He stated that the PDP presidential candidate is attempting to gain sympathy votes over the naira note crisis.
El-Rufai said: “This week, because of a mere extension of 10 days, he’s turning round to say don’t extend; it means there is something. He’s clearly benefiting from this pain Nigerians are going through every day till today.
“I have reports that people in Kaduna cannot buy food and they cannot sell because there are no currency notes around. But the presidential candidate of the PDP is saying don’t extend because he’s gaining from it. The incitement of people against the APC is in his view to his advantage and this incitement is stronger in northern Nigeria where Atiku is to benefit from.”