Governor Abdullahi Ganduje has asked President Muhammadu Buhari to postpone his visit to Kano state, where his safety can no longer be guaranteed, over his adamant refusal to extend the January 31 deadline for submitting old notes.
“Deeply concerned with the hardship caused by the limited time given for halting the use of old Naira notes by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and for security reasons, Kano State Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje reveals that the state resolved to write the Presidency that, the visit of the President to commission some projects should be postponed,” a statement by the governor’s media aide, Abba Anwar, disclosed.
The president was expected to pay an official visit to Kano State between January 30 and 31.
The statement is coming days after youths staged a protest in Katsina State and pelted crowds and cars of government officials with stones, to express their anger against Buhari who commissioned some projects in the state.
The Kano statement noted that obtaining the new naira notes is causing great hardship for many state residents, particularly those in rural areas, and implied citizens may act out of character.
“As we are waiting for this important visit, we found ourselves in this situation, which puts citizens into untold hardship. For security purposes, we wrote to Presidency that President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Kano is postponed,” the statement read.
Ganduje asserted that the state’s lawmakers and political leaders and other stakeholders took the decision in a meeting held at the Government House on Friday where the matter had been deliberated.
“Two serving senators from the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Kabiru Ibrahim Gaya and Barau Jibrin, twenty members of the House of Representatives, and thirty legislators from the State House of Assembly were amongst the groups that put their weight behind the governor,” the statement disclosed.
Ganduje lamented that “that there are no banks in the rural areas” and that many POS operators had “closed shops due to the uncertainty.”
CBN has refused to budge and insisted on January 31 as the deadline for submitting old naira notes. The move, seen as a ploy to forestall financial inducement of voters at the general elections next month, has been criticised by many politicians especially those running for office.
Femi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of the House of Representatives, on Thursday threatened to compel the police IG to issue an arrest warrant on Godwin Emefiele, the apex bank governor.
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