Traders laud Matawalle for ordering arrest of people rejecting old naira

Animasahun Salman Sokoto

The Amalgamated Union of Northern Traders has endorsed a directive by Gov. Bello Matawalle of Zamfara State that security men arrest anybody who rejects old naira notes during transactions.

The traders lauded the Matawalle’s directive on Saturday in Sokoto State.

The PUNCH reports that Matawalle and Kogi and Kaduna state governors dragged the Federal Government to the Supreme Court, seeking an order to extend the validity of the old N200, N500 and N1000 notes.

The Supreme Court, in its ruling on Wednesday, stopped the CBN from implementing the Feb. 10 deadline for the validity of old notes as legal tender.

The group’s youth leader, Alhaji Sanusi Nufawa, noted that the informal economic sector can only be revived if leaders take drastic decisions to make people do transactions with both old and new notes just like Matawalle ordered.

He said the effort would further reduce and relieve the pains that ordinary Nigerians are experiencing in the face of scarcity of both the old and new naira notes.

He expressed optimism that the circulation of old notes and gradual withdrawal and replacement of old with new notes would ease people’s sufferings.

According to him, he was convinced that those against Matawalle’s action and victory at the Supreme Court are either misguided or blinded by political chauvinism.

The trader leader further commended the governor for openly standing behind his people than becoming a burden like others doing now; using the suffering for political gains.

He also commended the National Council of State in their resolution to the government on producing more naira notes and considering people’s plights.

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