Growing apprehension and confusion have enveloped residents of Warri South and Uvwie Local Government Areas of Delta State over the use of the old currency as at the expiration of the February 10, 2023 deadline originally set by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for phasing out the old currency notes of N200, N500 and N1, 000.

Delta State News Bulletin gathered that the development was generated by the Supreme Court order restraining the federal government from banning the use of the old currency notes from February 10, 2023.

The Supreme Court had directed the federal government to allow the newly redesigned currencies to be used alongside each other till February 15, 2023, when the suit filed by Kaduna, Kogi and Zamfara States governments challenging the CBN’s naira redesign policy will come up for hearing.

The apprehension of not knowing whether the old currencies have been phased out, according the CBN directive or whether it was still in use as a result of the Supreme Court ruling, caused panic and confusion in markets in the two local government areas monitored by the Delta State News Bulletin.

The newspaper reports that at the popular Small Market in Warri Garage, Igbudu Markets and some other business locations, there was uncertainty as to whether to accept the old currencies or not.

A filling station on Airport Road located near a popular eatery was alleged to have out rightly rejected the old currencies, even as another filling station along Jakpa Road, Effurun, Uvwie Local Government Area, also allegedly rejected the old currency.

The two filling stations were closed for business when the Delta State News Bulletin visited the area to verify the allegations that the stations were rejecting the old currencies on Saturday, 11^th February, 2023.

A filling station at Ometan/Lower Erejuwa area was also among filling stations that allegedly rejected the old currencies. Staff of the petrol station declined to respond to enquiries on the issue.

Also, some commercial tricycle (Keke) operators bluntly rejected the old currency in Warri.

However, the old currency was still accepted in most places in both local government areas, according to the report.

Meanwhile, there was an unconfirmed report that erring filling stations were forced to dispense their products free of charge by a government monitoring team.

Update news