A middle-aged restaurant owner in Kogi State on Saturday detained two of her customers for hours due to their failure to pay her in new naira for the two plates of food they ate.
The event reportedly occurred in Ganaja village of Lokoja, the state’s capital.
One of the victims– Ahmed told DAILY POST in an interview. Ahmed revealed he and his colleague were at the restaurant to eat a plate of fufu each with two meat at the cost of N900.
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He said:
“After we finished eating the food, I gave the madam operating the restaurant N 2,000 old naira as payment for the two plates of food we ate, expecting her to give me N200.
“Rather than giving me the balance, she retorted, ‘Are you not aware that we don’t accept old naira notes as payment for our services again?’ ”
Ahmed said when another customer reminded the restaurant owner that the old notes remain legal tender until January 31, 2023, she insisted that the two customers must pay her in new naira or remain detained.
He said:
“We thought that the madam was joking but she insisted we must pay in new before we could leave her restaurant or we begin to wash plates as an atonement for the food we ate.
“After some 30 minutes or so, another customer who is familiar with the restaurant intervened to bail us with a promise to pay her later in new notes.”
The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN’s earlier January 31 deadline for the new naira swap was greeted with groans from Nigerians before it was recently extended.
According to the CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, the move was informed by the outcry from Nigerians.
He said:
“Based on the foregoing, we have sought and obtained Mr President’s approval for the following: a 10-day extension of the deadline from January 31, 2023, to February 10, 2023; to allow for collection of more old notes legitimately held by Nigerians and achieve more success in cash swap in our rural communities after which all old notes outside the CBN loses their Legal Tender Status.
“Our CBN staff currently on mass mobilization and monitoring together with officials of the EFCC and ICPC will work together to achieve these objectives.
“A 7-day grace period, beginning on February 10 to February 17, 2023, in compliance with Sections 20(3) and 22 of the CBN Act, allowing Nigerians to deposit their old notes at the CBN after the February deadline when the old currency would have lost its Legal Tender status.”
