The Benue State Police Command has risen swiftly to rubbish a viral report that several caches of old Naira notes were recovered from its barracks in the Wadata area of the state capital, Makurdi.
The rebuttal came close to the December 15, 2022 date for the newly designed naira notes to come into circulation.
The social media had gone blazing last Tuesday, with a report that large cache of old naira notes purportedly hidden at a location in a police barracks in Wadata.
However, a statement issued by the state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ms.Catherine Anene, a Superintendent of Police, revealed that police investigators dispatched to the said location recovered only wasted papers in a shop near the aid Wadata Police Barracks .
The Police spokesperson further revealed that the owner of the said shop, one Mr. Isah Suleiman, was invited for interrogation, during which he presented a waste management licence supposedly issued by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.
Suleiman, SP Anene continued in the statement, further disclosed that the discarded papers were typically obtained from CBN and converted into mosquito repellants.
The Police, according to Anene, has, consequently, referred the said licence to the CBN for confirmation.
President Muhammadu Buhari had, on Wednesday, November 23, 2022, unveiled the new naira notes of N200, N500 and N1,000 at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The unveiling of the new notes took place before that week’s Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting, presided over by the President.
Earlier in October, the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, had announced that apex bank would release the re-designed naira notes by December 15, 2022. He also disclosed that the old notes would cease to be regarded as legal tender by January 31, 2023.