Image: Politics Nigeria.
Protests erupted in the Warri metropolis and its environs on Wednesday over the persistent shortage of new Naira notes and the inability to make transactions with the old notes.
The protest was also about the hike in pump prices of fuel.
According to Daily Sun the protests first started in Udu, near Warri, and later spread to Enerhen junction, Uvwie council area where several new generation banks are located.
The protesters, mostly youths who had laid siege on the banks in the early hours of the day destroyed automated teller machines of banks in the area.
They set up bonfires at various junctions including the very busy Orhuwhorum junction where branches of Access Bank and Union bank are located, and at Express junction, disrupting vehicular movement and creating chaos in the area.
At Express junction, some women and children carrying green leaves joined the protests which later became riotous with the angry mob vandalizing some Automated teller machines belonging to Access Bank at Orhuwhorum junction and that of the First Bank at Udu road.
The vandalized machines were thereafter set ablaze, although the fire was later put out.
Some parts of the banks' buildings were also destroyed by the mob who hauled stones into the banks' premises.
Political billboards of both APC and PDP candidates mounted at both the Orhuwhorum and Express Junctions were not spared by the mob.
Bank workers and customers who were in the banks for early transactions fled the scene before the protests degenerated into a riot.
School authorities hurriedly shut down schools in the area and parents rushed to pick up their children before their normal closing time.
Image:Politics Nigeria.
However, soldiers and mobile police officers from Operation Delta Hulk of the Delta State Police Command soon arrived and took charge of the situation, dispersing the demonstrators.
Some residents who spoke to Daily Sun expressed their frustration at the seemingly unending shortage of new Naira notes at the banks and the banks refused to accept old Naira notes for transactions.
“We’re tired, you go to the filling station to buy fuel they said they will not take the old notes even with the exorbitant rate they’re selling. Okay, let's do a transfer, they said no, no transfer. Okay give us new notes, banks say no money and that they’re short of cash.
"So what do they want us to do? We can’t buy with old notes, we can’t get new ones. We’re at a dead end hence the youths decided to come out."
One resident who identified simply as Benjamin said, “They were lucky that security people came on time otherwise they could have burned the banks.
"Everywhere was chaotic, people were running helter-skelter, and parents were running here and there to pick up their children from school. All the POS stands in Orhuwhorum and Express Junctions were set ablaze. There was commotion everywhere."
There have also been violent protests in the South-west states of Oyo and Osun over the scarcity of fuel and the new naira notes.
Politics Nigeria reports that on Wednesday, Governor Samuel Ortom of Benue State asked the Federal Government to review its Naira policy “before the situation gets out of hand”.
"Yet, some people are not telling Mr. President the truth. Someone close to the President should tell him that this policy will sink his image forever if he allows it to remain the way it is.
"The Federal Government should review the policy before the situation gets out of hand," Governor Samuel Ortom wrote.
Politics and Opinion.
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