Babagana Zulum, the governor of Borno state, has threatened to withdraw the title to any structure it occupies if it does not use its automated teller machines to distribute new naira notes (ATMs).
Governor Zulum issued the warning on Friday, February 3, in Maiduguri after visiting bank branches to assess the difficulties locals were encountering when attempting to use long lines at ATMs to acquire new naira notes amid severe scarcity and despair.
The governor stated on a visit to one of the banks;
"Any bank in Borno state that is not willing to ensure their ATMs are fully dispensing new naira notes cash to ease the suffering of our people, we will withdraw their land title immediately. We will only spare banks with genuine constraints that are verifiable.
Many people are said to be here since 3am, and some could not even eat anything. The new naira note and even the old ones are not available and that is adversely affecting commercial activities in the state and people are suffering.
We just released salaries of about 5 billion Naira and the banks don't have money, and some of the ATMs are not working. We don't have any problem with the CBN policy or the withdrawal limit, they said individuals can only withdraw n20,000, but why can't everyone have access to that N20,000?
Yesterday I was in Gubio with a population of over 70,000 people but it was impossible to source N100,000 in the entire local government, neither of the new note nor the old notes. A ram that is worth N100,000 is now being sold for N35,000 because people are desperate for cash, and some wicked rich people are going to rural areas to exploit poor people," Gov Zulum said