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By Dada Ahmed in Lokoja.
The quick intervention by the elders averted what would have been a physical clash between 3 security agents and the civil population in the ongoing scarcity of new naira notes in kogi State and other states of the federation.
Our Correspondent reports that event happened on Wednesday at the First bank, Ganaja, Lokoja, the state capital where hundreds of customers lined to cash the new naira notes.
The Reporters’ Correspondent,who was at the bank to monitor the scarcity of the new notes, reports that uneasy calm brewed when three young security personnel in uniform,came to the bank to withdraw money and went straight to the ATM, armed with ATM cards.
However, the action of the security personnel did not go down well with those on the queue, describing such attitude as an affront on them.
A lady in her late 40s, among the crowd on line,flared, insisting that the three security men must take their rightful position on line to cash their like others in conformity with the law.
According to her, while the civil population know the importance of the security agents in safe guarding lives and property of the people, the action of the three security agents lacked civility, adding that it an affront on the integrity of customers who have been waiting on queue, hours,to withdraw the new money.
“We are not unaware of the work of security personnel in the society.
“Even if these security men will withdraw money before we that have been waiting on long queue for hours to cash money, courtesy demands that they ask for our permission because they met us on the line.
“This is to show that our security agents have respect for the civil population,”she remarked.
Our Correspondent further reports that as the security men stood unpaturbed to the raging woman, whose action was being imbibed by others on the queue and the atmosphere was getting frenzy, two elders on the line quickly waded in to shoot the trouble.
They quickly appealed for calm and educated the security personnel concerned,on the need for them to always respect the right and integrity of those they are paid to protect.
At this juncture, one of the security men complied, raised his hand and said, “okay,we are sorry”, with smile, withdrew their money, left immediately and normalcy returned.
Our Correspondent reports that besides the maldrama, the situation in the banks in Lokoja and its environs regarding withdrawal of the new money remained unpalable on Thursday as customers thronged banks with myriad complaints.
While some banks stick to the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s directive of N20,000 limit payable to a customer per day, others paid N5,000, citing lack of adequate money from the apex bank for them to dispense to customers.
In response, many customers have continued to lament their suffering due to the cash crunch created by the scarcity of the new naira.
They accused operators of Point of Sale, POS, for their astronomical hike in their charges for withdrawal which they noted had risen to almost 100 per cent since the start of the scarcity of the new notes.
