The staff of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), on Wednesday, escaped, by the whiskers, lynching from youths at the volatile Ogbe-Ijoh community in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State.
Our correspondent gathered that the CBN crew, led by Mr Sunny Daibo, Deputy Director of Finance, was at the community in continuation of the ‘cash out’ exercise for folks in the creeks of the state.
The CBN officials, it was learnt, were, earlier at Ode-Itsekiri, the ancestral home of the Itsekiri, where they had helped folks to cash out the new Naira notes through a PoS operator contracted for the job.
No sooner they began to dispense cash to an already-excited queue made up of women, and youths than a group of community boys stormed the venue demanding why the CBN officials did not obtain permission from them before embarking on the exercise.
“There was one bank agent that had cash and because we have serviced the upland enough, we decided to go to the riverine areas so that they can enjoy the cash-out.
“We visited Ode-Itsekiri and we were able to take care of all the people that needed money we moved to Ogbe-Ijoh from there and they were happy.
“At Ogbe-Ijoh, they saw us and they were happy and we were told that PoS agents were collecting N3,000 per N10,000.
“As we were doing that, suddenly, the youth leaders just appeared and wanted to cause trouble, troubling the PoS operating saying we didn’t come to take permission.
“So they started violence and we had to leave by jumping into our boat to escape. Safety first.
“From there, we went to Ugbuwangue jetty and serviced them with the remaining cash we were left with. We cannot operate where there’s a crisis. Nobody wants to lose his or her life,” Daibo hinted.
Our correspondent later gathered that some PoS operators who have, hitherto, been exploiting the people with old naira notes allegedly mobilised the riotous youth leaders to eclipse the exercise for their selfish end.
Mr Daibo, who’s the representative of Godwin Emefiele, said his crew also monitored the activities of petrol stations in Warri and environs to ascertain they’re maximizing the CBN cashless policy of transactions.
“Right now, we are doing two things; check on the filling stations and supermarkets to ensure they are complying with the cashless policy.
“We don’t want a situation where they would be loading cash that was paid to them by customers.
“We had to go and monitor to ensure that they are complying and they were complying.
“We visited four MicroFinance Banks as well as Stanbic IBTC and their ATM was paying. In addition to that, they were paying over the counter.
“We visited about two filing stations, too, to ensure that they were also complying with the cashless policy and we confirmed that they are using PoS to collect payment and not cash,” he noted.
Asked about his views on the exercise, Daibo quipped: “From my assessment and view, I discovered that this cash-out is still one of the ways forward to douse the tension and reduce the suffering.
“Each time we go to any of the communities, they are happy because they were using money to collect money from PoS agents but now, you are bringing the cash to them directly.
“Because of the security challenges happening now, we could only operate in the riverine areas.
“About the PoS agents exploiting people, first of all, it has reduced unlike before. According to PoS agents, they were buying the money from filling stations.
“Nigerians should be patient with CBN. They should be patient because those people that are going to destroy ATMs will be the ones to suffer later.
“When there is peace and you need to use the ATM, you won’t be able to because you’ve destroyed the ones you had.
“Violence does not bring a solution. Everything will soon be calm and normalcy restored. The money is circulating more than before. Though it will take them, it will circulate gradually.”
Some beneficiaries of the CBN exercise at Ode Itsekiri and Ugbuwangue jetty expressed some joy and relief.
Mrs Lovett Oluwaje, who benefitted from the exercise, said she felt so relieved because of the stress she had gone through in queuing at banks with no success and seeing how seamless it was for her to access some new naira notes with no stress.
Meanwhile, Wisdom Alokpa, who’s the public relations officer of the Ogbe-Ijoh community, hasn’t responded to the alleged unruly disposition of his folks.